Chinanews, September 15th (Liu Danyi and Chen Shuang) The fire is coming!
A surreal scene in a science fiction movie is being staged in the United States.
The smoke from dozens of wildfires spread throughout the city, and the sky was dyed an orange like "doomsday".
The local residents called out, "As if living on another planet."
On September 9, local time, orange smoke enveloped the sky over the San Francisco Bay Area.
The black smoke covered the sun, the homes were destroyed, and the "disaster"-like scene reminded people that, as California Governor Newsom said, "climate change has come and it is happening faster than most people expected."
unprecedented!
2020 California wildfire burns "16 New York"
Scorched trees and telephone poles that were smoked into smoky gray; buildings that were burned into a pile of bricks, concrete and metal, completely invisible; parked on the driveway and on the side of the road, only the shell of the car...mountain The place where the fire raged is only ruined.
Recently, wildfires on the west coast of the United States have killed more than 30 people and evacuated hundreds of thousands.
In California, the fire has destroyed more than 4,000 buildings.
Source: Zhongxin Video
According to US media reports, since the beginning of 2020, California wildfires have destroyed about 4,000 buildings and burned 3.2 million acres of land the size of 16 New York City!
Of the 20 largest fires in California over the years, six occurred in 2020.
"It's crazy." California Fire Chief Cordova said, "We have not even entered the October and November fire season, we have broken historical records."
Recently, California wildfires continue to spread, causing huge losses.
Source: Zhongxin Video
What is even more heartbreaking is that the raging wildfires also caused more than 30 deaths across the United States and dozens of missing, including even one-year-old children.
Some officials stated that they are prepared for "potential mass deaths."
In California, a 16-year-old boy was among the victims.
The local police said he was swallowed by the fire while trying to escape the fire.
His mother said desperately: "He was lonely and scared and ran away desperately." "My son was a kind, smart, and caring boy. He died alone. Thinking of everything he had experienced, I My heart is breaking."
On September 7, local time, California wildfires continued to burn. The picture shows people camping by the stream trapped and unable to evacuate.
At present, the fire that has swept across the west coast of the United States continues.
A US fire agency said on the 13th that the fires were mainly concentrated in California, Washington, Oregon and Idaho, but the fires in Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and other places have gradually become fierce.
According to the National Fire Protection Center, there are currently "more than 30,000 firefighters and support personnel" fighting on the front lines of fire fighting.
But so far, they have received little help from the weather-high temperatures and strong winds can only make the fire stronger.
From the experience of previous years, California fires may become more dangerous after the fall: after the summer heat, the mountains and forests will burn more easily; and the windy weather in autumn will further promote the spread of the fire.
Old homes turned into ruins
"It's like a war just broke out"
In order to protect the safety of people's lives and property, in the severely disaster-stricken Oregon State, Governor Brown issued an emergency evacuation warning to about 500,000 people, and more than 40,000 residents evacuated their homes.
However, evacuees in some areas were allowed to return to their homes to check the disaster situation.
Recently, wildfires in the western United States swept the San Francisco Bay Area and tens of thousands of people were evacuated.
Source: Zhongxin Video
When Matt Manson, a resident of Phoenix, Oregon, returned home, he found that the truck that had been parked in front of the house had been destroyed by the fire, and the house was now in ruins.
"The truck's engine has been burnt, and traces of chemical liquid are left on the driveway," Manson said. "I lost everything, including all tools and my truck."
Now, Manson has only one backpack with some change of clothes in it.
Facing the burned home, he could no longer speak, "just like a war just broke out."
As of the early morning of September 12, local time, a large-scale wildfire in Oregon, the United States, has placed 500,000 people on evacuation alert.
The 56-year-old citizen Zui fled Portland together with her daughter.
"We saw a little bird flying in the air, and then suddenly it fell out of smoke...I didn't want to die like this, so I decided to evacuate from my home."
Heavy smoke invades the Pacific Ocean?
Expert: Smoke and dust make people more susceptible to the new coronavirus
Mountain fires that have burned for days have also caused a sharp drop in air quality.
According to NASA's news on the 11th, as the fire continued to raging, a plume of smoke appeared on the west coast of the United States.
On September 6, due to the change of wind direction, suffocating smoke began to churn and began to invade the Pacific Ocean.
On September 13, local time, NASA released satellite images of wildfires in the western United States.
Under the influence of wind, smoke from the burning fire swept across the continent.
Image source: NASA Earth
People in the western United States have a more profound experience of smoke pollution.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles is facing the worst smog in 26 years; over San Francisco, the sky was covered by smoke and the sky turned orange; a 37-year-old man in Oregon said that the choking smoke made him "It feels like I smoked 100 cigarettes. I have never seen anything like this."
Some health experts say that smoke and dust will increase the risk of respiratory problems for local residents and even increase the risk of contracting the new coronavirus.
Reka Morsi, an infectious disease expert in Los Angeles, believes that the smoke and dust produced by wildfires can stimulate the lungs and cause inflammation, thereby affecting people's immune systems and making people's lungs more susceptible to infection.
California, which has the highest number of new crown cases in the United States, has now encountered the worst wildfire in history.
NBC commented on this: "Disaster in disaster! California is in a double crisis!"
On September 13, local time, in Oregon, USA, local firefighters sprayed red flame retardant to extinguish the Almeida mountain fire. Large areas of ground, many cars, houses, and vegetation were stained red. Search and rescue personnel searched for victims among the ruins.
Wildfires are raging due to poor management?
Trump denies climate change is refuted
For several weeks, U.S. President Trump has been busy with the election campaign and has been strongly criticized for his neglect of the fires raging in many states.
On the 14th local time, when Trump arrived in California under pressure from public opinion to inspect the fire, he blamed the raging wildfires on the failure of the western states to properly manage the forest, which was refuted by all parties.
Groups including environmentalists, state officials, and scientists believe that "scarred countryside and gray clouds" are foreseeable consequences of climate change.
On September 7, local time, the California mountain fire continued to burn, and firefighters extinguished the fire in the sea.
However, Trump has always believed that climate change is a "scam."
Therefore, after he took office, the U.S. federal government not only failed to control climate change, but instead allowed the U.S. to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement and canceled environmental protection regulations in many areas.
California Governor Newsom said: "I really have no patience with people who deny climate change. You may not believe it intellectually, but your eyes will tell you a different story."
Washington State Governor Insley said: "The only remaining moisture in eastern Washington is the tears of those who have lost their homes. Their tears are mixed with the smoke and dust from the wildfires." (End)