'All gone:' Residents return to scorched Oregon town
Apocalyptic images of the town of Talent, Oregon emerged Monday in the aftermath of the Almeda Fire - one of several devastating blazes that continue to rage across, Oregon, California and Washington.
(REUTERS REPORTER): “And this is your home obviously, right?”
(DANE VALENTINE): “Yep, it’s all gone….”
Talent residents Dane and Hansel Valentine gave Reuters a firsthand look at where their house once stood – a stone chimney one of the few recognizable features among the ash and debris.
Drone video showed patches of red fire retardant blanketing whole neighborhoods in Talent – block after block of homes completely burned to the ground.
Search and rescue teams looked for victims among debris, while families picked through the scorched ruins in search of any belongings – including missing dogs and cats – with owners leaving bowls of food and water in the hope their pets would return.
Tracy Koa, a high school teacher, returned to Talent over the weekend after evacuating with her partner, Dave Tanksle, and 13-year-old daughter.
Koa told Reuters, “We lost everything but at least we have our family. Thank God we left when we did.”
After four days of brutally hot, windy weather, the weekend brought calmer winds blowing inland from the Pacific Ocean.
The cooler, moister conditions helped crews make headway against blazes that burned unchecked last week, but emergency officials worried the shifting weather still would not bring enough rain to help quell the fires.
Down the road from where the Valentine’s house once stood, a woman with a Trump 2020 sign on her home pointed a shotgun at the Reuters journalist and shouted at him to leave, saying “You’re the reason they’re setting fires up here.”
She was perhaps referring to false rumors that left-wing activists had sparked the wildfires.
Oregon Governor Kate Brown told CBS News over the weekend that drought conditions, extreme temperatures and high winds created the “perfect firestorm” for the blazes to grow, adding, “This is a wake-up call for all of us that we’ve got to do everything in our power to tackle climate change.”