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A man drove through the Japatul Valley in San Diego County and captured the Valley Fire as it scorched the the hillside on Sept. 6.
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President Donald Trump was scheduled to visit a wildfire command center and meet with California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday as the death toll from almost 100 major wildfires roaring across much of the West rose to at least 35.
Firefighters struggled with high winds and low humidity in their furious battle for containment. Meteorologist Dan Borsum said strong southerly winds and low humidity Monday will result in elevated fire weather conditions across the region. He said conditions may improve a little bit Tuesday.
Borsum added the air quality in the region may not improve until October.
Two more deaths were reported California, raising the death toll there to 24. Ten deaths have been reported in Oregon and one in Washington state since a rash of fires began burning in drought conditions a month ago.
Several people remain missing and an unknown number of homes have been destroyed.
‘Everything’s gone’: Fire, smoke devastate Oregon families, workers, homeless
Trump, quiet on fires, to pay visit today
President Donald Trump, out west for a series of campaign fundraisers and rallies, will meet with California Gov. Gavin Newsom and visit a fire command center in Sacramento County today where he will be briefed by local and federal fire and emergency officials, the White House said. Trump has had little to say about the fires, either on Twitter or in his public appearances, although he did thank the firefighters in a tweet Friday and indicated that financial help was on the way. Last month he had threatened to withhold federal money.
“I see again the forest fires are starting,” he said at an August rally in Pennsylvania. “They’re starting again in California. I said, you gotta clean your floors, you gotta clean your forests. … “Maybe we’re just going to have to make them pay for it because they don’t listen to us.”
Wildfires turn up heat on climate-change debate
Trump’s assertions that forest management is to blame for the fires is falling deaf ears among Democratic political leaders on the West Coast as they grapple with how to douse the blazes. Inslee, speaking Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” described climate change as “a blowtorch over our states in the West.”
“It is maddening right now that when we have this cosmic challenge to our communities, with the entire West Coast of the United States on fire, to have a president deny that,” Inslee said. “These are climate fires.”
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, also appeared on the program, pointing out that the Cascade snowpacks have gotten smaller and forests drier.
“The president has said it’s all about raking the forest. It’s just a big and devastating lie,” Merkley said.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom tweeted: “The hots are getting hotter. The wets are getting wetter. Climate change isn’t something that is going to happen in the future. It’s happening right NOW.”
Seven remain missing in North Complex Fires
In California, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea announced two more people have died from the North Complex Fire, bringing the death toll to 14. Honea said seven people remain missing, but added his office has “leads” on all of them. More than 160 people once listed as missing have been located, he said. The fire, which has burned more than 400 square miles in Butte and Plumas counties, was listed as 26% contained Monday. The fire, about 80 miles north of Sacramento, has been burning for almost a month.
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Wildfires in California and other western states are getting worse every year, but is climate change all to blame? We explain.
USA TODAY
Suspended Oregon fire marshal explains why he quit
State Fire Marshal Jim Walker made an offer to a distraught employee that he says ultimately led to his resignation. The employee was worried about a relative who lived an area where four people have died since the Beachie Creek Fire raced through the area a week ago. So, on Thursday night, Walker and a member of the incident management team searched through the dark and dense smoke of the canyon. All but one were accounted for. The next day Walker, who reports to State Police Superintendent Travis Hampton, was placed on paid leave.
“Their take was … you’re using your position or your job to be able to go into that area,” Walker said. “I can’t in good faith work in a system that’s non-supportive to what I see as needing to be provided to our firefighters on the ground.”
– Claire Withycombe, Salem Statesman Journal
‘I could never have envisioned this’: At least 35 dead as nearly 100 wildfires rage
Fire closes in on gateway city to Sequoia National Park
A section of Sequoia National Park was closed as the Sequoia Complex Fire threatens Three Rivers, a gateway city to the park. Three Rivers is a town of more than 2,000 people in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada at the edge of the San Joaquin Valley.
“Our No. 1 priority is public and employee safety. It is crucial to take care of our staff and our gateway community of Three Rivers,” said Acting Superintendent Lee Taylor. “With this partial park closure, it is our intention to reduce possible evacuation complexity of the Three Rivers community by reducing the amount of visitors in the area.”
– Sheyanne N. Romero and James Ward, Visalia Times-Delta
29 major fires burning in California alone
Cal Fire has provided a grim update on the state’s wildfires. Over 16,750 firefighters are battling 29 major wildfires across California. Since the beginning of the year, wildfires have burned over 3.3 million acres in the state, an area larger than the state of Connecticut. Since Aug. 15, when California’s fire activity elevated amid thousands of lightning strikes in parched forests and brush, more than 4,100 structures have been destroyed.
Contributing: The Associated Press
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]]>An unusually expansive outbreak of large and fast-moving wildfires threatens communities in three states on Wednesday, with the greatest risks focused on Medford, Ore., and Oroville, Calif., as large fires advance in those areas.
“This event is unprecedented. I’ve talked to people who have been in fire for 20, 30, 40+ years and they’ve never seen anything like this before. Not this many large, rapidly spreading wildfires across such a broad region,” tweeted Nick Nausler, a fire weather specialist with the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.
The evacuation in Medford, which took place on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, was prompted by one of many new blazes that started Monday and Tuesday and grew so large that their smoke blocked sunlight as it spread out over the Pacific. The skies took on an eerie orange glow in places like Eugene, Ore., and the San Francisco Bay Area.
The wildfires come after a record-shattering heat wave and amid human-caused climate change that is heightening fire risks, along with temperatures, in the West. These blazes are being driven by strong, dry offshore winds that are causing extreme fire behavior, which can produce everything from mushroom cloud-like plumes of smoke that reach 40,000 feet in height, to vortexes that make it impossible for firefighters to contain an advancing fire.
Here are some significant developments:
- The Glendowner Fire (also known as the Almeda Fire) has prompted the evacuation of Medford, Ore., a city of 82,000 people, where many fled their homes. Areas to the southeast of the city, including Phoenix, Ore., saw the loss of structures as the fire swept through the region Tuesday evening. “Pray for Medford,” tweeted resident Jeff Carpenter. “We are on fire tonight.”
- The Bear Fire that began in a remote region of Northern California advanced rapidly through timber on Tuesday evening through Wednesday morning, coming close enough to Oroville, Calif., to prompt the evacuation of that community as well as parts of Paradise, Calif. That’s the same town nearly destroyed in a deadly 2018 wildfire. The fire is part of a larger complex that has rapidly burned about 254,000 acres.
- Red Flag warnings for dangerous fire weather conditions remain in effect for much of the day from Washington State southward to Southern California. Winds have not been as strong as feared in the L.A. area.
- Smoke from the ongoing blazes has blotted out the sun in San Francisco, and resulted in unhealthy air quality across three states.
September 9, 2020 at 3:52 PM EDT
‘It’s apocalyptic:’ Smoke-filled skies over Bay Area stymie sunlight, disrupt daily routines
It was as if the sun never rose over the San Francisco Bay area Wednesday, and the smoke-induced darkness is throwing people, plants and even power systems off-kilter.
Hudson Fox, a nursery worker at Sloat Garden Center in Mill Valley, Calif., said he thought he accidentally set his alarm for 8 p.m. instead of 8 a.m. Pacific time Wednesday morning. His clock was right. It was the sun that had gone away.
When Fox, 19, arrives at work, the first thing he does is water all the plants. But they were still wet from the previous day’s watering at 1:30 p.m. Fox, who lives near the nursery and had been attending college before the pandemic, has never seen anything like this.
“This is definitely unprecedented,” he said. “It’s apocalyptic.”
The Sloat Garden center is usually busy with landscapers who show up when the doors open at 8 a.m. On Wednesday by 11 a.m., there had been one customer, Fox said.
He said that if the lack of sunlight continues for days, some plants could start to rot if they stay moist and the water isn’t circulated.
“The light usually isn’t the issue — it’s usually keeping the water being regulated and circulated and not to just sit there,” he said.
The lack of sunlight can be seen in the data shared by the California Independent System Operator, which oversees the state’s energy system.
Wednesday at 11:55 a.m., the state’s solar power plants were producing 9,030 megawatts of energy. A week ago at the same time of day, the number was 11,217.
But the difference is likely more dramatic in the Bay Area. Cal ISO doesn’t include solar panels installed in residences. In Corte Madera, Calif., this reporter’s 6-kilowatt home solar array was at zero.
By Reed Albergotti
September 9, 2020 at 3:23 PM EDT
California’s Bear Fire explosively grows, forces evacuation of Paradise, devastated by 2018 blaze
The Bear Fire, located just northeast of Oroville, Calif., and east of Chico, roughly 70 miles north of Sacramento, explosively expanded between Tuesday and Wednesday.
Daniel Swain, a climate researcher at the University of California Los Angeles, estimates that the blaze grew 250,000 acres in 24 hours. The Bear Fire is part of the North Complex Fire, which had charred 254,000 acres as of Wednesday morning, according to the Incident Information System.
The Bear Fire has exhibited extreme behavior, developing towering pyrocumulonimbus clouds more than 40,000 feet high and probably fire tornadoes.
“This is an extremely large, dangerous, and fast-moving wind-driven fire,” Swain tweeted.
This area burned by the North Complex Fire likely ranks as the 9th largest in California history. The 2020 wildfire season had already also produced the second-, third-, and fourth-largest blazes on record in the state.
Overall, 2.5 million acres in California have burned in 2020, the most on record by far, and the state’s offshore wind season, typically the most perilous for fires, is just beginning.
By Jason Samenow
September 9, 2020 at 1:54 PM EDT
It’s dark enough in San Francisco to confuse chickens
Just north of San Francisco in Mill Valley, the dark skies were confusing some usual early risers.
Ken Kirkland at the Woolly Egg Ranch family farm said his 500 chickens have been silent all morning. When he went out to check on them around 10:30 a.m., they just were standing around staring, confused and not eating.
“They are absolutely quiet, they are dead quiet. They think it’s night,” said Kirkland. “Usually they’d be making all kinds of noise, kicking and scratching.”
It is also affecting their egg production. On Tuesday, Kirkland noticed only 50 egg drops, 25 percent less than the usual amount.
By Heather Kelly
September 9, 2020 at 1:26 PM EDT
The view of the West Coast fires from space is shocking
Satellite imagery of the wildfires shows the extensive effects of this unfolding disaster. Meteorologists and climate scientists have been stunned to see this imagery Wednesday, given that the smoke extends up and down the entire West Coast and out into the Pacific, with tendrils reaching northward toward the Gulf of Alaska.
Some of the largest blazes are burning in Oregon, where fires have burned more than 200,000 acres in just a couple of days. Meanwhile in California, more than 2.5 million acres have burned so far this season — a record, according to Cal Fire.
This satellite animation shows both the smoke and satellite detection of hot spots of the fires themselves:
By Andrew Freedman
September 9, 2020 at 12:55 PM EDT
Skies turn eerily orange over California, Oregon as wildfires blaze throughout Pacific Northwest
Skies up and down the coastal Pacific Northwest are blazing orange as more than 85 wildfires, including the Glendower Fire — also called the Almeda Fire — in Oregon and the Creek Fire in California, burn throughout the region.
Areas hardest hit by the fires are simultaneously experiencing record temperatures, leaving many residents sweltering indoors, unable to open windows because of floating ash and soot in the air outside.
In Eugene, Ore., temperatures were forecast to hit a high of 97 degrees, prompting local officials to advise residents against opening windows and doors despite the heat.
“If temperatures are going to the point where it’s starting to make [residents] uncomfortable, they need to find another place to be,” Leslie Pelinka, a local PeaceHealth pediatrician, told the Register-Guard. “The answer won’t be to open up their windows and their doors, because that will just permanently impact the quality of the air inside their home.”
Lights had to be placed around the practice putting greens in Napa due to the hazy conditions, the PGA tour said early Tuesday.
By Kim Bellware
September 9, 2020 at 12:35 PM EDT
Behind the blazes: Drought, extreme heat and climate change as an amplifier
The more than two dozen large wildfires blazing across the West are burning amid unusually dry conditions. They are also coming on the heels of a second historic heat wave in two months, which dramatically dried out vegetation, making it burn more readily.
These two factors alone help explain why the region is burning right now, though two other key factors are also at play.
Increasingly tilting the odds to favor extreme events is climate change, research shows. Then there is the extreme weather event hitting the West, part of a flip-of-a-switch weather-pattern shift that sent temperatures crashing from 92 degrees Monday in Denver to 33 degrees and snowing on Tuesday.
Drought is widespread in Washington, Oregon and California, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor and other products.
Additional metrics that are more specific to wildfires show conditions were off-the-charts favorable for fires this week.
John Abatzoglou, a climate researcher at the University of California at Merced, noted one key fire index that measures the thirst of the atmosphere showed record-setting conditions across a vast expanse of the West this week. As he explained on Twitter, the vapor-pressure deficit “is the difference between how much moisture the air can hold (which increases nonlinearly with temperature) and how much moisture is in the air.”
Extremely low vapor pressure means conditions are hot and the air is extremely dry. This, combined with an early-season down-sloping wind event, helped lead to this wildfire outbreak — once sparks lit new blazes and winds hit preexisting fires.
Studies show that early-season down-sloping events may increase in parts of the West as human-caused global warming continues. In addition, a study published last month shows climate change is increasing the risk of extreme wildfire conditions during the fall season in California. The state’s frequency of fall days with extreme fire-weather conditions has more than doubled since the 1980s, the study found.
By Andrew Freedman
September 9, 2020 at 12:10 PM EDT
Suffocating smoke from wildfires elevates air pollution to hazardous levels
Smoke from the siege of large fires in the western United States is streaking across the Lower 48 but is most pronounced and unhealthful in California and the Pacific Northwest.
The U.S. government’s AirNow pollution data shows large pockets of code red air quality levels in California, Oregon and Washington. Embedded within those pockets are zones of code purple and even maroon in Oregon, signifying “very unhealthy” and “hazardous” air quality.
The AirNow showed Oregon’s worst air quality just south of Eugene.
“Unfortunately, air quality is still in terrible shape for most cities across the Valley & OR coast,” tweeted Jeff Forgeron, a meteorologist for the Fox television affiliate in Portland.
According to waqi.info, an online database of air quality levels, the pollution in parts of western Oregon was about the worst in the world, trailing only isolated locations in China and India.
Ryan Stauffer, an air quality expert at NASA, said in an interview that the code red conditions in Salem, Ore., have occurred only three other times on record. He called the nearby code maroon levels “exceptionally high” and “rare territory.”
The duration of the compromised air quality has also been notable, Stauffer said, particularly in California.
“This is a multiday event,” he said. “The fact that the smoke has remained draped over California for four days, it’s brutal.”
In California, the worst air quality was just south of Fresno. In San Francisco, the smoke obscured the sun, turning the sky a dark, smoky red hue.
At code purple and maroon levels, adverse health effects from the pollution impact the entire population but are especially dangerous for those with respiratory conditions. Under such conditions, residents are advised to limit time outside and avoid strenuous outdoor activities.
By Jason Samenow
September 9, 2020 at 10:56 AM EDT
Widespread evacuations and emergency orders grip Oregon amid ‘once-in-a-generation’ wildfires
Thousands of Oregon residents were ordered to evacuate their homes late Tuesday as wildfires tore through the southwestern part of the state and prompted Gov. Kate Brown (D) to issue emergency conflagration declarations for at least four separate blazes.
The worst of the fires, called the Alameda Fire and Glendower Fire, stretched along the Pacific Highway from just outside Portland down south to Medford.
At least a dozen areas were under some level of evacuation order early Wednesday, with residents in more than 1,000 homes southeast of Portland and east of Eugene ordered to leave immediately. Officials from Vida and Blue River, unincorporated areas in Lane County near Eugene, said their communities as of Tuesday were “a total loss.”
Just after midnight in Washington County, west of Portland, sheriffs deputies were going door-to-door to rouse people as an order to evacuate immediately took effect.
The Oregon Department of Forestry estimated the fires had burned more than 3,800 acres and as of late Tuesday, the fire was zero percent contained.
“This is proving to be an unprecedented and significant fire event for our state,” Brown said during a Tuesday news conference, and described the intense weather contributing to the wildfires as “a once-in-a-generation event.”
By Kim Bellware
September 9, 2020 at 10:54 AM EDT
Satellite imagery shows massive extent of fires
The sheer number of fires burning in the West is a moving target as new blazes erupt, but weather satellites are valuable tools for monitoring them.
Satellite products not only reveal smoke from fires, but can even sense the heat they release and the location of “hot spots,” which can be sensed day or night.
Some on social media were comparing the satellite imagery of California on Tuesday to images from space and on the ground from the Australian fires that started out the year and consumed vast amounts of forests in the eastern parts of the country.
By Jason Samenow
September 9, 2020 at 10:28 AM EDT
Conditions conducive to ‘extreme’ fire behavior continue in Washington, Oregon and California
Red flag warnings for dangerous fire weather conditions stretch from the U.S. border with Mexico northward to Canada along the West Coast Wednesday as hot, dry and windy conditions continue to fan existing blazes and fuel new ones.
According to the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center, the fire risk is particularly acute in the higher terrain of western Oregon and northern California. In these areas, relative humidity percentages fare alling into the single digits, temperatures are expected to climb into the low 90s, and winds of 20 to 30 mph “will continue to exacerbate significant issues with large ongoing fires exhibiting extreme behavior,” the Center wrote.
The Center also indicated a “critical” fire risk in the coastal ranges of southern California where Santa Ana winds could gust to 35 to 45 mph.
Winds are forecast to gradually diminish in all of these areas later Wednesday into Thursday. However, the arid conditions “will continue to contribute to an environment favoring plume-dominated fires with extreme behavior,” the Center wrote.
By Jason Samenow
September 9, 2020 at 10:27 AM EDT
Fire situation in the West unprecedented, fire weather forecaster says
The scope and extent of the fires in the western United States is unprecedented, according to Nick Nauslar, a meteorologist with the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, which coordinates firefighting efforts nationwide.
“I’ve talked to people who have been in fire for 20, 30, 40+ years and they’ve never seen anything like this before,” he wrote in a tweet. “Not this many large, rapidly spreading wildfires across such a broad region.”
In California, nearly 2.3 million acres have burned in 2020, surpassing 2018 for the most acres burned annually in the modern record. In Oregon, more than 230,000 acres have been charred. (That number is likely to rise, though, once the tally from Tuesday and Wednesday is fully incorporated.)
Nauslar is not the only official to describe the situation in such stark terms. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown described the weather contributing to the blazes as “a once-in-a-generation event.”
In Washington state, 330,000 acres had burned into Tuesday. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee called this “an unprecedented event.”
Many meteorologists and weather observers have expressed shock about the situation.
“The wildfire situation in California and Oregon has now escalated to the point that I can no longer keep track of the countless massive, fast-moving, and potentially very dangerous fires,” tweeted Daniel Swain, a climate researcher at the University of California at Los Angeles. “The geographic scale and intensity of what is transpiring is truly jarring.”
“Unbelievable to see forest fires in suburban parts of Western Washington, where it rains 9 months of the year,” tweeted the Seattle Weather Blog. “Just unbelievable.”
Timothy Bella contributed to this report.
By Jason Samenow
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]]>The post Western Pennsylvanians sought to take part in coronavirus vaccine trials appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>Researchers are seeking at least 750 people in Western Pennsylvania to take part in trials for vaccines against the novel coronavirus that causes covid-19, UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh announced Wednesday.
The trials are part of what is called Operation Warp Speed, a national push to develop rapidly a vaccine that’s safe and effective.
“This is a chance for Pittsburgh to have an impact that’s not just local or national — it’s going to be worldwide,” Dr. Judy Martin, director of the Pittsburgh Vaccine Clinical Trials Unit at UPMC Children’s Hospital, said. “This really allows us to do something that enables us to help”
One of the vaccines that will be part of the trial was developed by Moderna, a Cambridge, Mass.-based biotechnology. On Tuesday, Moderna published in the New England Journal of Medicine results of a phase of its studies for a vaccine it developed.
The Moderna vaccine uses synthetic RNA to spur cells to produce the proteins found in the coronavirus that causes covid-19 that then cause a person’s immune system to respond, preparing it to fight the virus when a person is infected, according to a news release from UPMC and Pitt.
The vaccine has been cleared for another clinical trial that people in the Pittsburgh region can participate in.
Martin will direct Pittsburgh’s part in the trial. About 30,000 people across the country are being sought to participate at 87 locations, including the University of Pennsylvania’s Prevention Research Center in Philadelphia.
Half of them will be given the vaccine and the others will be given a placebo, Martin said.
Participants won’t find out which they received until the study is finished.
Another, yet-to-be-announced vaccine will be researched in the region by Pitt’s Division of Infectious Diseases. That trial will led by Dr. Sharon Riddler, the director of clinical research for the division.
There’s also hope the region will be selected to participate in more trials, she said. If it is, more people will be needed to participate.
“Pittsburgh has a tradition of being on the forefront of vaccine research,” Riddler said.
Dr. Jonas Salk developed a polio vaccine at Pitt in the 1950s. Martin and Riddler both cited Salk’s legacy, along with UPMC and the university’s robust infrastructure as reasons the region is taking part in the trials.
Participants need to be 18 or over and they should not be severely immunocompromised. They ideally are people who have a likelihood of being exposed to the virus because they live in densely packed housing, or because they hold jobs in restaurants, retailers, public transit, health care or day care or work as schoolteachers.
People who are part of Black and Latino communities, older adults and others with health conditions that make them more susceptible to covid-19 will be given a priority.
Those who participate will either be given a vaccine or a placebo, and they may also receive a booster about a month later, followed by periodic blood tests for one to two years to monitor their immune systems.
The guidelines for each study that’s done will vary, both doctors said, and things may change throughout the course of the studies.
“Everything is rapidly changing,” Martin said.
Even if a vaccine is found that’s proven to be effective, participants will be followed for years to help determine if there are any averse affects and to find out how long the vaccine is effective, Riddler said.
Participants will be informed of the potential risks of taking part in the study if they are selected, Riddler said.
Prior to the announcement of the studies, UPMC had a pool of nearly 700 people who were willing to participate in vaccine trials for a variety of diseases, Martin said.
To participate in the trials, click here, call 412-692-7382 or email VTEU@chp.edu.
Tom Davidson is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tom at 724-226-4715, tdavidson@triblive.com or via Twitter .
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