Category Archives: Wildfires

Biden condemns Trump as ‘climate arsonist’ as wildfires burn – live

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Trump has landed in California, where he will receive a briefing on the west coast wildfires, which have already claimed at least 35 lives.

“There has to be good, strong forest management, which I’ve been talking about for three years with the states, so hopefully they’ll start doing that,” Trump said.

Trump is in California mispronouncing "Oregon" and insisting that wildfires are caused be poor forest management pic.twitter.com/zydXDoe3DT

Joe Biden closed his climate speech by noting he continues to pray for Americans on the west coast who have been affected by the wildfires.

“We see the light through the dark smoke. We never give up. Always,” Biden said.

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Bigger than London, bigger than New York City: visualizing the size of fires in the US

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This interactive map shows the total area burned since 15 August in America’s west, compared with various major cities

Record-breaking wildfires are burning across the American west.

The blazes scorching parts of California, Oregon and Washington state have destroyed millions of acres, leveled entire towns and displaced hundreds of thousands. Dozens of people have been reported dead or missing.

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US wildfires: politicians condemn Trump for blaming ‘forest management’ – video

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Politicians strongly criticised the US president for his response to the escalating wildfire crisis in the west coast after he claimed 'forest management' was the main culprit for the emergency.

The death toll from wildfires choking the west coast of the US continued to rise on Sunday as authorities said more bodies were likely to be found in the charred ruins of towns across several states

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Record-breaking wildfires in Brazil threaten endangered species – video

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Record-breaking wildfires are threatening thousands of acres of one of the most biologically diverse areas on the planet, Brazil's Pantanal region.

'Sometimes we are a bit frustrated, but we try to have hope and to rescue the few animals we can,' said 26-year-old vet Karen Ribeiro at one of the shelters, where rescue units and volunteers are bringing in animals including jaguars for evacuation

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Fire crews in Oregon and California fight blazes as officials warn of further deaths

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  • Dozens still missing and tens of thousands forced to flee
  • Lighter winds and rising humidity help firefighters’ efforts

Fire crews in California and Oregon reported making progress on several blazes over the weekend, as lighter winds and lower temperatures aided the battle against the massive fires raging across the west.

But officials in both states told residents to brace for bad news, as rescue teams start combing through towns and neighborhoods leveled by the infernos.

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California governor: ‘We are in the midst of a climate emergency’ – video

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The California governor, Gavin Newsom, said ‘this is not a world that anyone should be experiencing’ as he surveyed charred mountain terrain devastated by wildfires. ‘If you do not believe in science, I hope you believe in observed evidence,’ he added. More than 68,000 people are under evacuation orders in California where the largest fire in state history has burned over 740,000 acres in the Mendocino National forest

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As fires burn the west, top Democrats stay quiet on the climate crisis

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Nancy Pelosi has been notably tepid on green legislation – so are the Democrats serious about fighting climate change?

With hundreds of thousands of Americans forced to evacuate their homes in the western US, Donald Trump hasn’t said a word about the wildfires blazing across multiple states in nearly three weeks.

Related: Oregon fires force hundreds of thousands to flee as deaths rise

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Dozens missing in Oregon as historic fires devastate western US

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Dozens of people are missing and at least 23 people are believed to have been killed as historic wildfires in the western US forced evacuations, stretched fire crews thin and spawned misinformation.

Residents of Portland, Oregon, awoke on Friday to air thick with smoke pollution that dimmed the sun and turned the skies blood-orange red. Hundreds of firefighters are battling two large wildfires that threatened to merge near the most populated part of Oregon, including the suburbs of Portland, and the governor said dozens of people are missing in other parts of the state.

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‘I have never seen anything like this’: Oregon towns emptied and confusion spreads amid fires

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In Molalla and other western towns, fear, uncertainty and disinformation gripped residents as hundreds of thousands in the state evacuate

Hundreds of thousands of people in Oregon were ordered to leave their homes on Thursday as wildfires encroached on their properties. The evacuations clogged highways, emptied entire towns and sparked confusion in a state that has not grappled with wildfires of this size before.

Large-scale evacuations in the state began within the metropolitan area of Portland, Oregon’s largest city. Clackamas county, home to some 420,000 people in the metro’s south, was already under varying levels of fire alert when officials on Thursday afternoon told residents of the city of Molalla to leave.

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Drone vision captures razed communities and burnt-out cars after Oregon wildfires – video

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Footage shot over Eagle Point shows flattened residential areas after nearly 100 major wildfires ripped through the US west. At least three people have been killed in Oregon with the governor, Kate Brown, warning that the state faces further hardship as authorities battle to contain the blazes

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US wildfires: Oregon has ‘never seen this amount of uncontained fire’, governor says – live

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Washington state’s governor, Jay Inslee, said today that the fires in the state have burned nearly 937 sq miles (2,426km).

“We’ve had this trauma all over Washington,” Inslee said, KHQ-TV reported. The governor was touring the farm town of Malden, which is 35 miles south of Spokane: “But this is the place where the whole heart of the town was torn out.”

Stunned residents of the small Oregon town of Phoenix walked through a scene of devastation Thursday after one of the state’s many wildfires wiped out much of their community, including a mobile home park, houses and businesses, the AP reports on the ground.

There were flames across the street from me, flames to the right of me, flames to the left of me. I just watched everything burn.”

Burned out cars, charred lawn ornaments, rubble. That’s what’s left of this Phoenix mobile home park, which covers abt 20 acres. Flames and smoldering embers still visible here. Everything is blackened by fire.

This was home to abt 300 people. pic.twitter.com/DrDobLKVev

Mayor Chris Luz talks about the loss of Puck’s Donuts. pic.twitter.com/4qz2gLy9Jb

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Oregon fires force 500,000 to evacuate as blazes across American west kill 15

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  • Unprecedented fire conditions burn more than 900,000 acres
  • Firefighting resources are stretched thin in three states

More than 500,000 people in Oregon have been forced to evacuate as unprecedented wildfires rage across the state, amounting to more than 10% of the population, authorities said Thursday.

Wildfires searing through the American west have killed at least 15 people, leveled entire neighborhoods and forced stretched firefighting crews to make tough decisions about where to deploy.

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Winds fuel wildfires in California as blazes rage across US west

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Region sees amber skies while Washington state faces more acres burned in a day than typically burn in a year

Large, fast-moving fires raged on across the American west on Wednesday, destroying hundreds of homes in the Pacific north-west and sending a dense plume of smoke that turned skies amber across parts of the region.

Related: California, Oregon and Washington battle dozens of fires – live updates

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California governor on wildfires: ‘No patience for climate change deniers’ – video

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About a million hectares (2.3m acres) have been burned so far in California as uncontrolled fires driven by high winds and unprecedented temperatures rage across the west coast of the US. The state governor, Gavin Newsom, has said he has 'no patience for climate change deniers' as the experience of the past few days was proof 

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Hundreds of thousands brace for power shutoffs as California fires burn 2m acres

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Altogether, 721,000 people could be affected by these preventive measures, posing significant risks to the physically vulnerable

Hundreds of thousands of Californians are bracing for preventive power shutoffs, as wildfires have burned a record 2m acres across the state and the pandemic keeps many confined to their homes.

The first wave of power shutoffs started late Monday night, with Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) cutting power to 172,000 homes and businesses in 22 counties in northern California because of strong winds and dry conditions in the forecast. The utility also planned to shut off power to customers in Kern county, north of Los Angeles, starting Tuesday afternoon.

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California fires burn record 2m acres

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Record set early in the season as firefighters battle to contain several wildfires ahead of forecast hot, dry winds

Wildfires have burned more than 2m acres (809,000 hectares) in California this year, setting a state record even as crews battled dozens of growing blazes in sweltering temperatures Monday that strained the electrical grid and threatened power outages for millions.

The previous high was 1.96m acres (793,184 hectares) burned in 2018. the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, began tracking the numbers in 1987.

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Pyrotechnic device at gender-reveal party causes California wildfire – video

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A fire in California that has burned more than 7,000 acres was caused by a 'pyrotechnic device used at a gender reveal party', according to the the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Almost 12,500 firefighters are battling 22 major fires across the state, according to Cal Fire

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