Wildfires rage across western states
CORRECTION: UPDATING THE HEADLINE AND BEGINNING OF THIS VIDEO AFTER OREGON GOVERNOR KATE BROWN TOLD A NEWS CONFERENCE, FRIDAY, THAT MORE THAN 500,000 PEOPLE WERE UNDER ONE OF THREE EVACUATION ALERT LEVELS. A PREVIOUS VERSION OF THIS VIDEO SAID ‘AROUND HALF A MILLION OREGONIANS ARE NOW DISPLACED.'
A spate of wildfires raging across Oregon kept half a million people under evacuation alert on Friday, according to officials.
Footage shows whole communities razed to the ground, with charred vehicles scattered in the inferno’s wake.
The community of Molalla - 25 miles south of downtown Portland - was an ash-covered ghost town, Friday... after its more than 9,000 residents were told to evacuate. Thirty people refused to leave, according to the fire department.
At least four people have died in Oregon, according to officials, while in neighboring California, at least 11 people have died from fires.
Oregon bore the brunt of nearly 100 major wildfires raging across Western states - like California and Washington…
Where, in Tacoma this week, a dramatic rescue was caught on camera.
“Hey everybody, get back!”
U.S. Coast Guard veteran Steven Biles saw black smoke pouring from a house.
He ran toward it - urging residents there and in the house beside it to get out before it was too late.
Fire crews quickly arrived on scene.
In Phoenix, Oregon - the charred remains of a mobile home park.
“It’s awful, it’s awful.”
Julio Bryan Flores lost his home in the Alameda fire - which is now under a criminal arson investigation.
That fire started in Ashland, Oregon and incinerated several hundred homes in nearby communities.
Portland suburbs are now under threat as two of the state's largest fires have merged into one.
Oregon Governor Kate Brown said some 900,000 acres had burned, dwarfing the state's annual 500,000-acre average over the past decade.
In California, wildfires have burned over 3.1 million acres so far this year.
