California not alone as wildfires sweep across western US

OROVILLE, California－Three people died in a wind-whipped Northern California wildfire that has forced thousands of people from their homes while carving a 40-kilometer path of destruction through mountainous terrain and parched foothills, authorities said on Wednesday.

California Highway Patrol Officer Ben Draper told the Bay Area News Group that one person was found in a car and apparently had been trying to escape the flames.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of homes and other buildings are believed to have been damaged or destroyed by the blaze northeast of San Francisco, fire officials said at an evening news conference.

The fire has also threatened Paradise, a town devastated just two years ago by the deadliest blaze in state history that prompted a traffic jam as panicked residents tried to escape.

The North Complex fire was one of more than two dozen burning in the California. including three of the five largest ever in the state. Other wildfires charred huge swathes of the US west amid gusty, dry conditions. Forecasters said some weather relief was in sight and could help firefighters overwhelmed by the blazes.

Officials said the number of simultaneous fires and perhaps the damage caused was unprecedented.

Because of its cool, wet climate, the Pacific Northwest rarely experiences such intense fire activity. But climate change driven by human-caused greenhouse gases is expected to keep warming the region, with most models predicting drier summers, according to the College of the Environment at the University of Washington.

Blast of polar air

In Washington state, more hectares burned in a single day than firefighters usually see all year. Fires also forced people to flee homes in Oregon and Idaho. A blast of polar air helped slow wildfires in Colorado and Montana.

In Oregon, numerous wildfires burned in the states's forested valleys and along the coast, destroying hundreds of homes and causing mass evacuations. Governor Kate Brown said Oregon could see the greatest loss of life and property from wildfires in state history.

In western Oregon, fire tore through Santiam Canyon and the Cascade Range foothills east of Salem, the state capital. People with animals sought shelter from the Red Cross at the fairgrounds.

Since the middle of August, fires in California have killed 11 people, destroyed more than 3,600 structures, burned old growth redwoods, charred chaparral－vegetation composed of broad-leaved evergreen shrubs, bushes, and small trees－and forced evacuations in communities near the coast, in wine country and along the Sierra Nevada.

Thick smoke on Wednesday choked much of the state and cast an eerie orange hue across the sky as thousands of people in communities near Oroville were ordered to evacuate.

Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, conservatively estimated the fire had burned about 1,036 square km in 24 hours.

"The unbelievable rates of spread now being observed on these fire-sit is historically unprecedented,"Swain tweeted.

Agencies Via Xinhua