Thousands evacuated as US wildfires burn across California and Nevada - BBC News

Thousands of people in the western United States are spending the weekend in evacuation centers
as wildfires continue to burn across the region.
More than 80 large fires in 13 states have destroyed around 1.3 million acres in recent weeks.
North America correspondent Peter Bose has this report : The dixie wildfire California's biggest
blaze to the north of the state is growing rapidly. Firefighters are battling day and night to try to
bring it under control but it's spreading with such ferocity that it's making its own weather creating
huge clouds that are generating lightning strikes across the region. About a fifth of the fire's
perimeter has been contained but officials say the extreme nature of the fire along with low
humidity is hampering efforts to quell the flames. People have been evacuated from their homes
in several nearby counties. Smoke from the fire is traveling far and wide and is even reaching the
neighbouring state of Oregon where it's helping firefighters put out the country's largest blaze
known as the bootleg fire. South of Portland a layer of smoke is blocking sunlight and creating
cooler conditions making it easier for firefighters to gain ground on the blaze but the phenomenon
known as smoke shading is unpredictable and there are fears that high temperatures and wind
gusts later in the weekend could fund the flames. Further efforts to bring this fire under control
have been further complicated by an outbreak of covid19 among firefighters. Those who've tested
positive are isolating and are said to be exhibiting mild symptoms. With a long hot summer still
ahead these fires will challenge much of the western United States for many weeks to come. Peter
Bose BBC news Los Angeles
A little earlier Stephen Myers who is with the bootleg fire information team for the Oregon state
fire marshal gave us an update from lakeview Oregon : yeah so we now stand at four thousand uh
one acres uh or four hundred one thousand acres. we're at 42. Containment weather has been
somewhat favorable the last couple days to make great progress uh but it is heating up this
weekend and we do have concerns for nearby communities we have thousand and two hundred
firefighters that are assigned to this and all of them are staying vigilant as this has still been a really
dry summer we had drought conditions in this part of the state so we still have a lot of dry fuels
out there and we still remain concerned yeah so we did have nine firefighters that tested positive
uh they are exhibiting mild symptoms and they were isolated from campothers that came in
contact were tested
and luckily came out negative so this time we're feeling confident that we've got a handle on this
and it hasn't hampered firefighting efforts stephen myers speaking to us a little earlierAnglais
(générés automatiquement)