PHOTOS: Wildfires rage in Washington, California, Oregon

On September 12, 2020, 7:34 AM

Wildfires across the West Coast have consumed more than three million acres in California, burned almost a million acres in Oregon and destroyed entire towns in Washington as they continued to spread on Friday.

In Oregon, 500,000 residents were under evacuation orders, as a record-setting fire season continued.

In California, hundreds of fires blazed across the state, including in the Mendocino National Forest in Northern California and Fresno in the central part of the state, as well as areas near Los Angeles and in Silicon Valley. California’s firefighting forces have been stretched, preventing them from sending teams to Oregon, where multiple fires, including the Almeda Fire, have caused extensive damage.

Facing a historic year of wildfire destruction across the West Coast, including more than three million acres consumed in California, the national emergency systems that rely on state-to-state assistance have been buckling under the strain. That has left emergency responders struggling to keep pace with fires that have destroyed entire towns and led to at least 15 deaths, with seven more people found dead on Thursday from a fire north of Sacramento.

Firefighters at the Northern Complex West Zone Fire, in Oroville, Calif., as flames glowed overnight on Friday.

The Vallecito Crew 1, a team of inmate firefighters, battling the Northern Complex West Zone Fire.

The Bobcat Fire consuming fallen trees in the Angeles National Forest north of Monrovia, Calif.

The Bobcat Fire spread across a mountainside in the Angeles National Forest.

A spot fire smoldered near what had been a lumber yard in Molalla, Ore.

Smoke filled the sky above cows in Molalla, Ore.

Firefighters working to contain the Bear Fire, which was renamed the Northern Complex West Zone Fire, in Oroville, Calif.

Sean Mann, 15, evacuated from Beavercreek, Ore., in Clackamas County on Wednesday with 14 horses, six dogs, and 10 people. Though they weren’t yet under an evacuation order, they didn’t want to be evacuating in the middle of the night.

Heather Marshall spoke to her mother as she stood by the ruins of her home at Coleman Creek Estates mobile home park in Phoenix, Ore.

Cars evacuating north along Highway 213 near Oregon City, Ore.

Residents watched as smoke and fire overtook a hill near the town of Medford, Ore.

Houses and vehicles in the Bear Lakes Estates neighborhood were destroyed completely.

Golfers at a country club in Napa, Calif., watched as smoke from the Bear Fire filled the sky.

A hiker in Concord, Calif., walked below an orange sky filled with wildfire smoke.

Flames overtook a fire truck near Oroville, Calif.

Flames engulfed a home caught in the Bear Fire in Berry Creek, Calif.

Inmate firefighters waited on the Enterprise Bridge in Butte County, in North Central California.

A view of the San Francisco Bay Bridge and city skyline as bright orange skies from smoke and ash in the air covered the region on Wednesday.

The charred remains of a home in Fresno County.

Nick Grinstead battling the Creek Fire in the Shaver Lake community of Fresno County, Calif.

A firefighter battling the Creek Fire as it threatened homes in Mariposa County, Calif.

The Creek Fire burned along a hillside in the Cascadel Woods community of Madera County, Calif.

Story By New York Times

California fires Wildfire in Oregon