ABOVE: Fire lines helped save a barn in the Hastings Natural History Reservation in late August
WALT KOENIG
Since mid-August, at least 24 people have died in wildfires in California, Oregon, and Washington State, CNN reports. Hundreds of homes and other structures have burned, including much of the towns of Phoenix and Talent in Oregon, and are consuming 900,000 acres in that state alone, according to an announcement from the governor’s office yesterday (September 10). An estimated half a million Oregonians—more than 10 percent of the state’s population—have evacuated.
“We have never seen this amount of uncontained fire across our state,” Oregon Governor Kate Brown tells The New York Times.
Several colleges and universities, including Western Oregon University, have closed due to air quality issues caused by the fires. University teaching and research sites have suffered in the fires, forcing staff and scientists to evacuate and destroying buildings and equipment. Cal ...
