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  1. #1
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    The entire Western US is ablaze in massive wild fires

    Ten percent of Oregon told to evacuate as U.S. West wildfires kill 24

    MOLALLA, Ore./MEDFORD, Ore. (Reuters) - Around half a million people in Oregon, or 10% of the state’s population, were ordered to evacuate on Friday and residents of its largest city, Portland, were told to be ready to go as extreme wind-driven wildfires scorched U.S. West Coast states, causing at least 24 deaths.

    About one hundred wildfires have burned an area nearly as large as the state of New Jersey across the U.S. West, creating smoke that gave California, Oregon and Washington state the worst air quality levels in the world.

    Oregon bore the brunt of the destruction, with search teams still unable to enter areas where fires burned through multiple small communities in the Cascade mountains.

    Molalla, a community about 25 miles (40 km) south of downtown Portland, was an ash-covered ghost town after its more than 9,000 residents were told to evacuate, only 30 refusing to leave, the city’s fire department said.

    The logging town was on the front line of a vast evacuation zone stretching north to within three miles (4.8 km) of downtown Portland, with Clackamas County police setting a 10 p.m. PT (0500 on Saturday GMT) curfew to deter “possible increased criminal activity.”

    About 10 percent of the state’s population faced red “GO!” warnings to leave homes immediately, while hundreds of thousands more were under yellow “BE SET” warnings, to leave at a moment’s notice, or green “BE READY” alerts.

    Towns southeast of Portland were at the mercy of wind direction and strength after two of Oregon’s largest wildfires merged into one.

    As winds dropped and moisture levels rose on Friday, firefighters launched drones into an apocalyptic yellowish smog to see how close the flames were.

    “We don’t know where the fire is,” said Molalla Fire Department Lieutenant Mike Penunuri, staring into smoke in the town center which reduced visibility to one block.

    In southern Oregon, a dystopian scene of burned residential subdivisions and trailer parks stretched for miles along Highway 99 south of Medford through Phoenix and Talent, one of the worst hit areas, according to a Reuters photographer at the scene.

    Blazes jumped from wildfires burning through scrub and forest to suburban firestorms as flames leaped from house to house.

    Oregon Department of Forestry fire chief Doug Grafe said he would need twice the 3,000 personnel he currently had to get a grip on around three dozen major blazes.

    In neighboring Washington state to the north, online video from the Tacoma area showed fires starting in a residential area and setting homes ablaze, locals running from house to house to warn neighbors.

    “Everybody out, everybody out!” a man screamed as firefighters tried to douse flames.

    The death toll from the siege of West Coast fires that began in August jumped to 24 after seven people were found dead late Thursday in torched mountain communities around 85 miles (137 km) north of Sacramento, California, state fire authority Cal Fire reported.

    Paradise, a town blasted by California’s deadliest wildfire in 2018, had the world’s worst air quality index reading at 592, according to the PurpleAir monitoring site, as two of the state’s largest blazes burned on either side of it. PurpleAir’s world map showed parts of the three fire-hit states with air quality readings far worse than anywhere else.

    Over 68,000 people were under evacuation orders in California where the largest fire in state history has burned over 740,000 acres (299,470 hectares) in the Mendocino National Forest around 120 miles (190 km) northwest of Sacramento.

    “We had four hours to pack up our pets and a few medications and things like that,” said retiree John Maylone from an evacuation center in Fresno, California, after he was forced to leave three of his 30 cats as he fled the massive Creek Fire.

    Police opened an arson investigation into the Oregon fire which destroyed much of Phoenix and Talent.

    But at least four Oregon police departments warned of “fake” online messages appearing to be from law enforcement that blamed left-wing anti-fascists and right-wing Proud Boy activists for starting the fires.

    Blazes in central Oregon also destroyed multiple communities in the Cascades and torched areas of coastal rainforest normally spared from wildfires. In eastern Washington state, a fire destroyed most of the tiny farming town of Malden.

    “This will not be a onetime event,” Oregon Governor Kate Brown told a Thursday news conference. “We are feeling the acute impacts of climate change”

    Over 100 years of fire suppression by state and federal authorities has created a huge buildup of dead trees and undergrowth to fuel fires that have naturally burned in the West’s forests for eons.

    In recent decades Americans have built houses in those forests as second homes or due to rising prices in metropolitan areas like San Francisco, Portland and Seattle.

    Scientists say climate change has contributed to greater extremes in wet and dry seasons, causing vegetation to flourish then dry out, leaving more abundant, volatile fuel for fires.

    Wildfires have burned over 3.1 million acres (1.25 million hectares) in California so far this year, marking a record for any year, with six of the top 20 largest wildfires in state history occurring in the last nine months.

    Ten percent of Oregon told to evacuate as U.S. West wildfires kill 24 | Reuters

  2. #2
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    Is this anywhere near Thailand?

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chico View Post
    Is this anywhere near Thailand?
    Just fuck off please, this is the second thread I have read before 630am with your fetid droppings stinking it up..

  4. #4
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    We have a lot of smoke in Vancouver from those fires. Can definitely feel its effect on my health, less energy and kind of nauseous. That's about 4 out of the last 5 summers that we've had heavy smoke from distant fires, what used to be rare events. It's becoming the norm, and people still deny climate change.

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    Thailand Expat Storekeeper's Avatar
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    Smoke haze over Bremerton is unbelievable today.

  6. #6
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    Here in Seattle the smoke is dreadful. I am holed up in my house with my A/C recirculating the air. Going outside looks like the apocalypse.

  7. #7
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    Smoke from the California wildfires is spreading 3,000 miles to New York City

    The entire Western US is ablaze in massive wild fires-180810065653-wildfire-smoke-nyc-exlarge-169-a

    Smoke from the California wildfires is spreading 3,000 miles to New York City - CNN

  8. #8
    Thailand Expat Saint Willy's Avatar
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    Again. (as per every year)



    Quote Originally Posted by bsnub View Post
    “We don’t know where the fire is,” said Molalla Fire Department Lieutenant Mike Penunuri, staring into smoke in the town center which reduced visibility to one block.
    That's not exactly reassuring from your local firey and an indication of how insane these fires are.

  9. #9
    Thailand Expat AntRobertson's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chico View Post
    Is this anywhere near Thailand?
    What part of 'World News' don't you understand.

  10. #10
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    That looks far worse than the thrice-annual haze in MY and SG from Indonesia



    Quote Originally Posted by Chico View Post
    Is this anywhere near Thailand?
    Quote Originally Posted by AntRobertson View Post
    What part of 'World News' don't you understand.
    Every part




    Quote Originally Posted by bsnub View Post
    Smoke from the California wildfires is spreading 3,000 miles to New York City
    That is simply awful . . .

    AO, didn't you send a pic taken by one of your daughters which showed first-hand hw terifying it is?

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    AO, didn't you send a pic taken by one of your daughters which showed first-hand hw terifying it is?
    I did noon Wednesday afternoon the Embarcadero San Francisco. Its only gotten worse.The entire Western US is ablaze in massive wild fires-09fires-sky03alt-superjumbo-jpg

  12. #12
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    AO, didn't you send a pic taken by one of your daughters which showed first-hand hw terifying it is?
    Not taken by one of his daughters.

    California'''s Orange Sky During Wildfires: See Photos - The New York Times

  13. #13
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    I said my daughter sent me the photo. I did not google it trying to find out where it came from.

  14. #14
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
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    Yep, that's how I remember it.

    Just an fyi for ph.

  15. #15
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    The smoke level here is the worst it has ever been. It is like being shrouded in a dense fog that never goes away and it hurts to breathe. This is really like nothing I have experienced before.

    This is a live view camera. It is dark here now but if you wind it back you can see how bad it was today...



    Two U.S. cities have the worst air quality in the world as fires burn across the West

    Portland, Seattle have worst air quality as wildfires burn | Tacoma News Tribune

  16. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by cyrille View Post
    Just an fyi for ph.
    Thanks, Cyrille

  17. #17
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by AntRobertson View Post
    What part of 'World News' don't you understand.
    There's evidently quite a lot chico doesn't understand.

  18. #18
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
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    'World' mostly covers it.

  19. #19
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    One of my brothers has lived in Marin County, near San Francisco, for the past 50 years - says the current smoke situation there is the worst he has ever experienced.

  20. #20
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    The entire Western US is ablaze in massive wild fires-118958091_10221825815368471_2867594634875036215_o-jpg

    The view from my sister's backyard in Palo Alto at 10am!

  21. #21
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    It must be difficult for people with lung problems : emphysema, COPD, asthma and so on.

  22. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by qwerty View Post
    The view from my sister's backyard in Palo Alto at 10am!
    Ya it is bad. I am stuck in the middle of it and my eyes have not stopped burning all day. I left the house today for just a half hour and my eyes immediately started burning and I had trouble breathing. When I am at home with central air and HEPA filtration on the HVAC system it is not so bad but stepping outside is a nightmare.

  23. #23
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bsnub View Post
    Ya it is bad. I am stuck in the middle of it and my eyes have not stopped burning all day. I left the house today for just a half hour and my eyes immediately started burning and I had trouble breathing. When I am at home with central air and HEPA filtration on the HVAC system it is not so bad but stepping outside is a nightmare.
    Good practice for Chiang Mai in March.

    Meanwhile:

    About half a million people in the US state of Oregon have been told to evacuate their homes or prepare to, Governor Kate Brown said Friday, as dozens of extreme, wind-driven wildfires scorched West Coast states.
    Brown was dialling back a statement late Thursday issued by the state Office of Emergency Management that said 500,000 people had been ordered to evacuate statewide, AP news agency reported.
    More than 40,000 Oregon residents have been evacuated and dozens of people are missing as a result of the fires, the governor said, while the state's emergency management director, Andrew Phelps, said officials are "preparing for a mass fatality event".
    Half million Oregonians told to flee as Western wildfires kill 24 | News | Al Jazeera

  24. #24
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    Yosemite National Park, Cathedral rock in the haze.


    The entire Western US is ablaze in massive wild fires-920x1240-jpg

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