500,000 evacuated from Oregon as fires engulf US West Coast

Dozens of extreme, wind-driven fires burned through forests and towns on the West Coast of the United States on Thursday, killing at least 16 people, forcing half a million to evacuate in Oregon alone, and destroying hundreds of homes, authorities said.

A spokeswoman for Oregon's Office of Emergency Management announced late in the evening that some 500,000 people, about an eighth of the state's total population, had been told to leave their homes. Thousands more were displaced north and south in the neighbouring states of Washington and California.

Including eight California fire deaths last month, the region's reported death toll for this year is now at least 16. 

Among those killed in the past day was a one-year-old boy who died while his parents attempted to drive out of an inferno 130 miles (209.2 kilometres) east of Seattle. They are both in a critical condition in hospital.  

"This child's family and community will never be the same," said Washington Governor Jay Inslee, in a statement on the state's first fire death of 2020.

"And neither will countless others who are reeling from the utter devastation these wildfires are leaving in their wake." 

Oregon has borne the brunt of some 100 major wildfires raging across the western US this week. Around 3,000 firefighters have been battling nearly three dozen blazes in Oregon, but fire officials say about twice as many are necessary to bring the fires under control.

Governor Kate Brown warned the death toll would rise as rescue teams reached devastated areas. 

"We have never seen this amount of uncontained fire across our state," she told a press conference.

"We know that there are fire-related fatalities. And as soon as we are able to provide confirmed information, we will do so."

Source: Al Jazeera