Oregon fires destroy five towns
Skies pulsed orange as wildfires along the U.S west coast, in Oregon razed five small towns, and the state governor fears a record number of deaths.
Firefighters had their work cut out for them -- battling at least 35 major blazes across an area, twice the size of New York City, fanned by winds of up to 50 miles per hour.
In Oregon, the community of Detroit, as well as Blue River and Vida in coastal Lane County, Phoenix and Talent in southern Oregon were substantially destroyed.
Governor Kate Brown spoke to reporters Wednesday (September 10): "This could be the greatest loss of human lives and property due to wildfire in our state's history."
In California officials said 64,000 people had been evacuated from their homes and 28 major fires raged across the most populous U.S. state.
Survival stories have also emerged from the fires overnight, Governor Brown spoke of rescuers in Oregon saving people by pulling them from rivers where they took refuge from the flames.
Other more tragic reports from local media included the death of a12-year-old boy and his grandmother in a wildfire burning near Lyons, south of Portland and a 1-year-old boy was killed and his parents severely burned fleeing a fire in northern Washington State.
Seventeen new large blazes were reported in the West on Wednesday, bringing the total to 96.
More than 3.4 million acres - an area nearly the size of the U.S. state of Connecticut - has burned.
