A Line of Fire South of Portland and a Yearslong Recovery Ahead
SALEM, Ore. — A 36-mile-wide line of flames edged into the towns around Portland, Ore., and cities along the West Coast were smothered in acrid smoke and ash on Friday as history-making wildfires remained unchecked, killing at least 17 and leaving dozens of people missing.
“We are preparing for a mass fatality incident based on what we know and the numbers of structures that have been lost,” Andrew Phelps, director of the Oregon Office of Emergency Management, said as firefighters struggled to contain blazes that have spread across millions of acres of the Pacific Northwest.
Fires in California, Oregon and Washington have torn through idyllic mountain towns, reduced neighborhoods to ash and spewed so much smoke that pilots were unable to pursue aerial attacks that can be critical in preventing such mass wildfires from encroaching on communities. Portland’s mayor, fearing the possibility that fires could start and spread in the city, has declared a state of emergency.
Combined, the states have seen nearly five million acres consumed by fire — a land mass approaching the size of New Jersey — in a record-setting made worse, scientists say, by the climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil. Such disasters will only become worse as the planet continues to warm.
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