Dozens of fires continued Tuesday, September 15, to ravage the American West.

A fire that has been burning for more than a week near Los Angeles threatens to engulf a historic observatory and costly telecommunications towers built on the hills overlooking the Californian megalopolis.

This fire, dubbed "Bobcat Fire", was no longer Tuesday morning at about 150 meters from the astronomical observatory of Mount Wilson, 116 years old, warned the rescue, stressing that their teams on the ground, supported by air assets, were preparing to face the blaze with the help of bulldozers.

According to officials at the observatory, all staff have already been evacuated.

Firefighters have been fighting the blaze since September 6, but it was only 3% contained, compared to 6% previously.

Los Angeles County Fire Department Captain David Dantic said the blaze, located about 25 km northeast of downtown, had already covered more than 16,000 hectares.

Record pollution

Many neighborhoods near the blazes were ordered to prepare for a possible evacuation, as authorities feared the destruction of some 80 historic cabins in the Los Angeles National Forest.

A total of 27 fires were still in progress across California.

They have already killed 25 people since mid-August and mobilized more than 16,600 firefighters on Tuesday.

Wildfires of unprecedented proportions are also ravaging the states of Washington, Oregon and Idaho, plunging the west coast of the United States into record pollution.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has argued that breathing air in fire-affected areas for a day is like smoking 400 cigarettes.

According to the US meteorological services, the fumes given off are so large that they have started to reach the east coast and Europe.

In total, more than two million hectares of vegetation have already been consumed since mid-August from the Canadian border to that of Mexico.

The death toll rises to 35 and risks increasing further.

Kamala Harris in the field

After Donald Trump's controversial visit on Monday, Tuesday, it was Kamala Harris, a vice-presidential candidate alongside Democrat Joe Biden, who was on the ground.

The California senator traveled to Auberry, 50 km northeast of Fresno, a small town devastated by one of the biggest fires in state history.

“It's sad but these forest fires and their destruction are eminently predictable,” Kamala Harris told reporters.

"Everything burned except the fireplace. These chimneys remind me of tombstones."

For Donald Trump, the fires are mainly due to supposed poor "forest management" in the states concerned, controlled by his Democratic opponents.

According to the scientific consensus, the exceptional scale of these forest fires is however well linked to climate change, which aggravates chronic drought and causes extreme weather conditions.

Some researchers even believe that these fires could have contributed to the death of hundreds of thousands of migratory birds of different species, found in recent weeks in New Mexico and surrounding areas.

Specimens will be autopsied to try to determine the exact cause of death.

With AFP

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