Wildfires show no sign of stopping with nearly 80 large fires burning in 10 western states

This year’s wildfire season offers no reprieve as almost 80 large fires are now ravaging the western U.S. in nearly a dozen states. At least 36 people have been reported dead while air pollution worsens in the region. The majority of the fires are concentrated in the neighboring states of California, Oregon and Washington, according to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC).

The western U.S. currently has the worst air quality in the world as the unremitting flames keep releasing hazardous smoke. Winds blowing east have also brought wildfire smoke across the mainland U.S. and all the way to Europe.

As states weather the peak of the fire season, authorities advise residents to stay at home as cases of asthma-like symptoms were reported in some areas.

Wildfires ravage the West Coast

According to the NIFC, the total number of wildfires for this year (42,500) remains below the 10-year average (45,200), but the total number of acres burned (nearly seven million) has already exceeded the 10-year average (nearly six million).

There are 79 large fires burning now in the following states:

• California (21)
• Idaho (14)
• Oregon (12)
• Washington (9)
• Montana (9)
• Utah (6)
• Colorado (4)
• Wyoming (2)
• Nevada (1)
• South Dakota (1)

The fires have collectively scorched nearly four million acres, with fires in California, Oregon and Washington scorching more than 3,360,000 acres. Authorities also reported 36 fire-related deaths in these states: 25 in California, 10 in Oregon and one in Washington.

The Oregon Office of Emergency Management reported Tuesday that an additional 22 people are missing in Oregon while at least 1,145 homes were destroyed. Half a million people, which is almost 10 percent of the state’s total population, were ordered to evacuate their homes. Governor Kate Brown said that this year’s wildfires are possibly causing “the greatest loss of human life and property… in our state’s history.”

Areas that rarely experience fires in the last few centuries are now burning with unusual ferocity, said pyrogeographer Meg Krawchuk of the Oregon State University. She said that the last 300 to 400 years went by quietly in the regions south of Portland until today’s Beechie Creek and Lionshead fires, which have burned a combined number of 380,000 acres.

Meanwhile, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said that five of the 10 biggest wildfires in California occurred in 2020, with the August complex breaking the record set by 2018’s Mendocino Complex, which was previously considered the biggest fire in the state until last week. Authorities are not expecting the fires to get better soon, as the seasonal Diablo and Santa Winds are picking up this fall.

Washington is experiencing one of its worst fire seasons since 2015, with fires burning more than 800,000 acres, reported the Seattle Times. More than 400 structures were destroyed while several hundred transmission lines went down. However, the Spokesman-Review said that conditions are improving in the state’s eastern region as some fires are nearing containment.

Air quality worsens while smoke reaches Europe

As the massive fires keep ravaging the western U.S., air quality has grown progressively worse. IQAir, a company that tracks global air quality, reported that the region currently has the worst air quality in the world.

California Governor Gavin Newsom compared breathing in the air to smoking 20 packs of cigarettes while Washington Governor Jay Inslee described the smoke in the state as “unbelievably irritating, downright unhealthy and dangerous.”

People are rushing to hospitals due to lung-related conditions. In Oregon, at least 10 percent of all emergency room visits are for asthma-like symptoms, Gabriela Goldfarb told USA Today, the section manager of environmental public health at the Oregon Health Authority.

Goldfarb urged people to stay indoors as much as possible, especially as smoke levels in Oregon are fluctuating between unhealthy and hazardous. The state classifies air quality as good, moderate, unhealthy for sensitive groups, unhealthy, very unhealthy or hazardous, reported the USA Today. (Related: California wildfires are causing unprecedented levels of air pollution.)

Wildfire smoke has also traveled across the mainland U.S. and all the way to Europe, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), which tweeted its observations on Wednesday.

🔥#Smoke from the unprecedented #USFires is moving back across #NorthAmerica from the #Pacific and is on its way to #Europe.

Find out more about the monitoring of fires and their smoke by the #CopernicusAtmosphere Monitoring Service in our latest article➡️https://t.co/st70y5IwUC pic.twitter.com/h7MoM2IBKl

— Copernicus ECMWF (@CopernicusECMWF) September 16, 2020

“The fact that these fires are emitting so much pollution into the atmosphere that we can still see thick smoke over 8,000 kilometers away [5,000 miles],”  said CAMS Senior Scientist Mark Parrington, “reflects just how devastating [the fires] have been in their magnitude and duration.”

Disaster.news has more on the fires in the western U.S.

Sources include:

StrangeSounds.org

NIFC.org

CalFire.ca.gov

SeattleTimes.com

Spokesman.com

USAToday.com

Twitter.com

ABCNews.go.com