The Western governors who have been negligent in their preparation to prevent fires , and fomented the fires by enabling legislation to thwart cleanup of underbrush - are responsible for the massive property damage, and the deaths - by legislative Murder - of the people killed by their preventable wildfires.
These governors should be arrested and incarcerated on murder charges immediately!!!!
They are complicit and actively cooperated in the causation of the fires that have killed these people - and are Murderers.
They have murdered 26 so far, with more murders to come.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/we-have-never-seen-this-10percent-of-oregon-under-evacuation-orders-death-toll-at-26-from-western-wildfires/ar-BB18W7Ts?li=BBnb7Kz
'We have never seen this': 10% of Oregon under evacuation orders; death toll at 26 from Western wildfires
More than 500,000 people in Oregon – over 10% of the state's population – are under evacuation orders as wildfires continued to race through more than a dozen Western states Friday.
t least 26 people have died and hundreds of homes have been destroyed by more than 100 major fires that have consumed an area nearly the size of New Jersey. At least 20 deaths have been reported in California, five in Oregon and one in Washington state. Nearly 28,000 firefighters and support personnel are assigned to wildfires across the West, and evacuation orders are in place for residents near 42 large fires, the National Interagency Fire Center said Friday. Wind-driven fires were also burning in Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.
t least 26 people have died and hundreds of homes have been destroyed by more than 100 major fires that have consumed an area nearly the size of New Jersey. At least 20 deaths have been reported in California, five in Oregon and one in Washington state.
Nearly 28,000 firefighters and support personnel are assigned to wildfires across the West, and evacuation orders are in place for residents near 42 large fires, the National Interagency Fire Center said Friday. Wind-driven fires were also burning in Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.
At least 26 have died in California, Oregon and Washington state
At least 20 people have died in fires in California this fire season, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire). Among that total is seven more added to the death toll Thursday, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said. One of the dead was Josiah Williams, a 16-year-old boy.
Another five people have died in Oregon, according to the state's Fires and Hotspots Dashboard. That includes two people who died in a fire east of Salem, Oregon, Marion County Sheriff Joe Kast confirmed Wednesday. Further south, two people were killed in the Almeda Fire, which is under criminal investigation.
Andrew Phelps, director of the Oregon Office of Emergency Management, said in a press conference Friday that the state was preparing for more fatalities, though he did not elaborate.
"We know we're dealing with fire-related death, and we're preparing for a mass fatality incident, based on what we know," Phelps said.
In Washington state, officials confirmed another death. A 1-year-old boy died after his family was apparently overrun by flames while trying to flee a wildfire, Okanogan County Sheriff Tony Hawley said.
"It's the first fatality we’ve had. And that’s too many – that is way too many," Washington Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz said, fighting back tears, in a video posted to Twitter Thursday. "No one should ever fear the loss of their child.”
Dozens missing, tens of thousands evacuated in Oregon
Dozens of people are missing, 40,000 people have been evacuated, and more than 1,500 square miles have burned in Oregon, Gov. Kate Brown said Friday afternoon.
More than 2,300 people were sheltered by the Red Cross Thursday evening, Phelps said.
But favorable weather was on its way, officials said.
"We anticipate cooler air and moisture coming in the next few days, which is really good news," Brown said.
Doug Graf, chief of fire protection for the Oregon Department of Forestry, said the cooler weather would allow firefighters to "move to offense." He said the department was focused on containing about 16 large fires Friday.
"We have not seen the likes of this fire, in this state, this integrated with our communities ever before," Graf said.
Brown attributed the record-breaking fires to winds, high temperatures and drought triggered by climate change.
"I think there’s no question that the changing climate is exacerbating what we see on the ground," Brown said. "It's incumbent upon all of us to be aware that climate change is going to impact how we live, our economy, our culture, and that we all need to be making changes accordingly."
In Portland, Mayor Ted Wheeler issued an emergency order Thursday evening, due to the threat of wildfires to the Portland Metro Area. Nearby, the entire inmate population of Coffee Creek Correctional Facility was being evacuated to another prison "out of an abundance of caution," prison officials said.
The Backstory: Covering the record-setting wildfires that have wracked Western states
As evacuees fled to hotels, reports of price gouging began to circulate. Brown issued an executive order Thursday declaring an abnormal market disruption, which allows the Attorney General and Oregon Department of Justice to investigate businesses where price gouging is reported.
"During a statewide emergency, it is absolutely unacceptable to price gouge Oregonians who have already been hard hit and are facing devastating loss," Brown said in a statement.
Hundreds of those who've been displaced in Southern Oregon walked past road closures on Thursday to try to find out what was left of their homes. In many cases, all that remained was gray ash and rubble — twisted metal bedframes, melted televisions, broken glass, burned out vehicles and here and there a few trinkets and keepsakes.
But Brown on Friday warned residents and media not to enter fire zones. She said Oregon State Police were monitoring reports of looting at residences amid the fires.
By Friday afternoon, more than 50,000 residents were without power from high winds and dangerous weather that fueled the fire east of Salem.
Wildfires burned millions of acres: See what that looks like.
California continues to battle 29 major wildfires
In California, which has already endured three of the top four largest wildfires in its history this year, more than 14,800 firefighters remained on the line of 28 major wildfires Friday, Cal Fire said. Although 24 new fires were sparked Thursday, crews contained most of them quickly, the agency said.
In Northern California, dozens were missing and hundreds of homes were feared destroyed by a series of blazes 125 miles northeast of San Francisco called the North Complex fires, which has been burning since a lightning storm ignited multiple fires on Aug. 17 and was 23% contained Friday. At least 20,000 people were under evacuation orders or warnings in Plumas, Yuba and Butte counties.
Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea was at the podium again this week, less than 24 months after leading emergency efforts in the cataclysmic Camp Fire, which killed 85 people and level the community of Paradise.
"Our community, unfortunately, is becoming accustomed to this," Honea said as he gave reporters an update on the North Complex fires Wednesday night. "I certainly hoped that after the Camp Fire I wouldn’t be back up here talking with you about a wildland fire of this magnitude that is as tragic as it is. But nonetheless, we are here today."
In Central California, the Creek Fire, the fourth-largest active fire in the state, was just 6% contained Friday, according to Cal Fire. As the fire ripped through thousands of acres of forest and destroyed homes earlier this week, it also produced two fire tornadoes that forced airliners to detour around them.
California is on fire: What are fire whirls, fire tornadoes, fire clouds and dry lightning?
In Southern California, fires burned in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and San Diego counties. The El Dorado Fire, which has burned more than 20 square miles in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, was listed as 31% contained as of Friday. More than 1,200 firefighters were on the scene, Cal Fire said.
Since January, wildfires have burned almost 5,000 square miles in California and more than 6,300 structures have been damaged or destroyed, according to Cal Fire.
Slide 1 of 26: A Riverside firefighter stands on top of his truck during the Lake Fire at Pine Canyon Road in the Angeles National Forest, by Lake Hughes, 60 miles north of Los Angeles, Calif. on Aug.15, 2020. The Lake fire already burned more than 17000 acres and it is 12% contained according to SoCal Air Operations.
The Lake fire already burned more than 17000 acres and it is 12% contained according to SoCal Air Operations.
At least seven weeks remain in the prime fire season, and conditions may be exacerbated by the La Niņa climate pattern – a natural cycle marked by cooler-than-average ocean water in the central Pacific Ocean – that tends to bring dry weather across portions of California and much of the Southwest.
"We’re already in a bad position, and La Niņa puts us in a situation where fire-weather conditions persist into November and possibly even December," Ryan Truchelut, president of Weather Tiger LLC, told Bloomberg News. "It is exacerbating existing heat and drought issues."
More: Apocalyptic photos and video show an orange sky over San Francisco, other cities as wildfires burn across Western states
State braces for 'huge mass of smoke'
Parts of California, Oregon, Washington – and even Arizona and Nevada – were grappling with low air quality Friday as a "huge mass of smoke" from wildfires continued to build up off the coast.
"Right now, our air quality ranks the worst in the world due to these fires," Brown said. "Almost anywhere in the state you can feel this right now."
In Washington, the Department of Ecology warned residents Friday that air was unhealthy and hazardous in some areas of the state, writing on Twitter that "Inhaling wildfire smoke is not good for anyone especially during #COVID19."
Satellite imagery shared by the Bureau of Land Management of Oregon and Washington Thursday showed a massive cloud along the West Coast.
In California, those living at lower elevations in the Sacramento Valley were advised to avoid going outdoors as much as possible as pollution reaches unhealthy levels. And in western Nevada, bordering Washoe County School District moved to full distance learning Friday morning – the sixth time in just the fourth week of school that the district has had to close its school buildings amid air quality concerns.
"This is not a normal cloud," Darren McCollum, a National Weather Service forecaster in Flagstaff, said Friday.
Contributing: Doyle Rice, John Bacon, Trevor Hughes and Jorge L. Ortiz, USA TODAY; Whitney Woodworth and Bill Poehler, Salem Statesman Journal; Damon Arthur, Visalia Times-Delta; Damon Arthur and David Benda, The Redding Record Searchlight; Brooke Newman, The Arizona Republic