US: Death toll of West Coast wildfires rises to 9; 500,000 ordered to evacuate in Oregon
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Police said that in the last 48 hours, nine people have lost their lives in the fires, which include four casualties from California and Oregon and a one-year-old in Washington
At least nine people were killed and hundreds of thousands evacuated as wildfires continue to impact US West Coast states on Thursday. In the state of Oregon, nearly 500,000 people, which is about an eighth of the state's population, were given evacuation orders.
Police said that in the last 48 hours, nine people have lost their lives in the fires, which include four casualties from California and Oregon and a one-year-old in Washington.
Other than Oregon, thousands were evacuated from Washington and California too.
Currently, the crisis is most severe in Oregon, where around 3,000 firefighters are working to douse about three dozen flames, which the state governor claims have burnt 900,000 acres of land.
In the western US, about 100 major wildfires continue to cause destruction.
Wildfires destroyed over 3.1 million acres land in California this year, which is an overall record as six of state's largest-ever fires occured in 2020.