Firefighters work to contain 84 large blazes in western US and Canada

Firefighters across North America are working intensively on containing wildfires across the region on Thursday, including in areas of California, Washington, Oregon, and other states, as well as parts of Canada, as heatwaves reaching record-breaking temperatures continue.

The US National Interagency Fire Center said in a report on Wednesday that there were 84 uncontained large fires burning across the country. In a statement, the center said that many of the wildfires in the north-west were exhibiting “extreme fire behavior”, and that evacuation orders were in effect as of Wednesday on 15 fires including in parts of California, the Northern Rockies and the Great Basin, the center said, with more than 21,000 wildland firefighters across the country working on managing the flames.

On Wednesday night, the immense conflagration in Oregon became the largest active blaze in the US, and had grown so big that it was creating its own weather.

Multiple fires have scorched more than 1,000 sq miles in the state, and in the adjacent Washington state, a fire that sparked on Monday and has prompted mandatory evacuations.

The Durkee fire in Oregon was sparked by lightning, and was threatening homes in and around the communities of Durkee, Huntington and Rye Valley, as well as a major highway, cell towers and power infrastructure in the area.

Tina Kotek, the governor of Oregon, has deployed the national guard to the region, the Associated Press reported.

In San Diego county, evacuation orders were in effect Wednesday night after a wildfire began to spread fast near the San Diego and Riverside county line. And in many of the areas of the country affected by the wildfires, including parts of Oregon, Washington and Idaho, air quality alerts and advisories were in effect as of Thursday due to wildfire smoke. Evacuation orders were also issued in areas of Butte county.

Areas of Utah and Nebraska are under fire weather watches this morning from the US National Weather Service, and areas of western South Dakota are under extreme fire danger warnings due to extremely dry conditions.

Red Flag warnings, which means that critical fire conditions are occurring or will shortly, according to the National Weather Service, are in effect in areas of North Dakota, Nevada, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Idaho, Nebraska, Washington and Oregon with low humidity and strong winds expected.

The Pacific north-west has already seen a particularly aggressive fire season this year, with millions of acres of national forest lands continuing to see record-breaking dry timber conditions, exacerbated by a lack of rainfall, according to the news release.

The lengthy heatwave across the region has increased the wildfire threat in recent weeks, with dried out land and record-setting temperatures heightening the risk of ignitions.

In Canada, wildfires continued to burn in areas near the Canadian town of Jasper on Wednesday night, officials said. The town suffered “significant loss” due to the fires, Jasper National Park service said in a statement on X.