SACRAMENTO (California) • Uncontrolled wildfires driven by high winds and unprecedented temperatures raged across the US West on Tuesday, incinerating the Washington town of Malden and threatening communities in Oregon and California.
Firefighters and emergency responders searched for residents of tiny Malden, about 480km east of Seattle, a day after a firestorm destroyed 80 per cent of its homes, along with the fire station, post office, city hall and library.
"The scale of this disaster really can't be expressed in words," said Mr Brett Myers, sheriff of Whitman County, where the town of between 200 and 300 people is located. "I pray everyone got out in time."
The fire that destroyed Malden erupted about noon on Sunday, driven by winds of 65kmh, Mr Myers told Reuters. The authorities went door to door ordering evacuations before the blaze arrived. The fire engulfed most of the town over the course of about three hours.
"It moved incredibly fast," Mr Myers said.
That fire was one of dozens of large blazes burning in Washington, Oregon and California over the Labour Day holiday weekend, as the thermometer soared. Temperatures in the western part of Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley topped 49 deg C.
"I have no patience for climate change deniers," California Governor Gavin Newsom said, pointing to the high temperatures, as well as years of drought that have killed millions of trees, providing fuel for fires. "It simply is completely inconsistent... with the reality on the ground."
About 14,000 firefighters battled 25 blazes in California with more than 890,308ha charred since the fire season got an early - and deadly - start last month, a record for this point in the year, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire) said on Tuesday. The state's peak fire season has yet to begin.
Fires forced thousands of residents to evacuate their homes and closed several national forests across the state.
Smoke darkened the skies and made breathing difficult as far north as Canada and well down the coast towards Southern California. In the state capital of Sacramento, the skies were grey and it was difficult to breathe as high winds carried in dust and smoke from numerous fires. Air throughout much of the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, the state's agricultural breadbasket, was rated "hazardous" by the state.
The Creek Fire in the Fresno area of central California, which caused the weekend emergency evacuation of more than 200 people vacationing at a popular reservoir, grew overnight under what CalFire called "extreme conditions". The blaze, which started last Friday, threatened the community of Shaver Lake, among others, fuelled in part by trees weakened by drought and killed by the invasive bark beetle, the fire agency said.
At a news conference on Tuesday, Mr Newsom praised the firefighters who led a helicopter evacuation of the area, saying they saved 214 people in smoky conditions that made it difficult to see.
"They very easily could have turned around and said the smoke made that mission too dangerous," Mr Newsom said, calling the rescuers heroic. Rescue efforts continued on Tuesday, he said, with about 165 people airlifted to safety and escape routes sought for more than a dozen more.
By Tuesday morning, the fire was completely uncontained and had burned 58,275ha, CalFire said. Firefighters on the ground were also in peril.
REUTERS
