Fires in the western United States: residents face the evacuation
Evacuations in the town of Molalla, Oregon on September 11.
REUTERS / Carlos Barria
Text by: RFI Follow
5 mins
28,000 firefighters are mobilized across twelve American states.
The fires have killed dozens of people and devastated more than 2 million hectares.
California and Oregon are the most affected.
Rare good news: the weather should be more favorable this weekend.
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With our correspondent in Los Angeles
,
Loïc Pialat
Like thousands of other Oregon residents, Libby had to evacuate urgently.
"
A neighbor called us hysterically shouting: 'We have to go now!'
she tells ABC channel.
I only have my swimsuit with me.
I was by the pool.
The children are in pajamas.
They don't even have their shoes on.
We left quickly.
"
Oregon is experiencing the worst fires in its history with entire blocks wiped off the map.
A
half million people
were evacuated from threatened areas.
Entire localities have reportedly been devastated.
Portland, the state's largest city, is also under threat.
"
The most stressful is at night
"
Eric John Kayer, French-American singer-songwriter and singer has lived in Portland for 15 years.
He describes the situation and the atmosphere at home: “
It's pretty weird.
There is smoke absolutely everywhere.
Air quality has deteriorated very quickly, and is deteriorating more and more.
We have a kind of big gray smoke above our heads.
The other rather weird thing is that the temperature is quite cool, because the sun cannot penetrate the smoke curtain.
The temperature has dropped by at least 20 degrees Fahrenheit [6 degrees Celsius, Editor's note].
I've never seen this in 15 years in Oregon, on the outskirts of town
.
"
The inhabitants are preparing to have to leave the premises if by chance the fire progresses.
"
Portland as such is not yet at level 1,"
continues the Franco-American.
But as it is very close and quite unpredictable, we, personally, we put our papers aside, food for the animals, we packed our small suitcases.
Sometimes you have 15 minutes to leave
.
Honestly, the most stressful thing is at night.
During the day you can follow the news, but at night you try to sleep, so you don't know what's going on.
What you should also know is that Portland is very woody.
It is a very green city and most of the houses are made of wood.
There are two concerns, in fact: there is smoke, and there is fire.
"
1.5 million hectares burned in California
The situation is even worse in southern California, where nearly a million and a half hectares have burned.
The North Complex Fire in the San Francisco area has killed at least 10 people.
About fifteen people are still missing.
The flames are raging in an area already affected two years ago by another monster fire.
This resident interviewed by American television had lost his house at the time.
His new house has also just been destroyed.
“
This time it hurts even more,” he
says.
We were in the process of rebuilding our life.
I am devastated that I have to start all over again.
"
►Also read: United States: unprecedented fires plunge San Francisco into darkness
Planted in a forest reduced to ashes, the furious Californian governor Gavin Newsom delivered a long plea in favor of the fight against global warming: “
It's a climate emergency!
There is no longer any debate on global warming.
California is America fast.
Everything we experience here will happen in other communities across the country if we do not decide to act
.
»Smoke affects air quality.
The governor compared it to the effect of 20 packs of cigarettes.
Fueled for days by
chronic drought
and high winds, the fires spread from the border of Canada to that of Mexico set sad records.
A total of sixteen victims were recorded this week, but it was impossible to assess the true extent of the destruction, large areas still being inaccessible.
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