US officials girded Saturday for the possibility of mass fatalities from raging wildfires up and down the West Coast, as evacuees recounted the pain of leaving everything behind in the face of fast-moving flames.

A prediction of cooler weather offered some hope of respite in coming days, but the true scale of the destruction from dozens of massive blazes in California, Oregon and Washington states remained hard to gauge.

There were 16 deaths confirmed this week, with wide stretches of land still cut off by flames fueled by tinder-dry conditions of the kind caused by climate change.

More than 20,000 firefighters are battling the blazes. The White House announced Saturday that President Donald Trump will visit California Monday to be briefed on the disaster.

"We're preparing for a mass fatality incident based on what we know and the number of structures that have been lost," warned Andrew Phelps, director of the office of emergency management in Oregon, on Friday.

"We anticipate that number (of deaths) may potentially go up as we get back into areas that have been ravaged by flame and obviously, smoke begins to clear," warned California governor Gavin Newsom, as he visited a scorched forest near the raging North Complex Fire.

Ten people have been confirmed dead from that blaze in Butte County, which was driven at unprecedented pace toward the city of Oroville earlier in the week by strong, dry winds and soaring temperatures.

But Newsom said the weather "is beginning to cooperate," with winds settling down and some rain forecast.

In Oregon, where one million acres (400,000 hectares) have burned and three people are reported dead with dozens still unaccounted for, governor Kate Brown also expressed hope a corner had been turned.

More than 40,000 Oregonians have fled their homes so far, with around half a million under evacuation warnings, Brown told a press conference.

In Portland, thick, choking smoke blanketed the downtown area Saturday morning, as local meteorologists said the city now ranks as having the worst air quality in the world.

"It is as if I had smoked 100 cigarettes. I've never seen this but we try to stay positive as conditions are getting better," said a 37-year-old man who gave his name only as Jessie.

Elsewhere in Oregon, depending on the severity of a given place, evacuation instructions range from gathering valuables and essential documents to getting out right away.

"It's like something in a movie. You don't expect it to actually happen to you, but when it's happening to you it's just scary," said Carrie Clarke, 25, who was evacuated from the Oregon town of Molalla and receiving food and other aid in a parking lot.

She said she and others wondered what they would take if they go back and recover things -- in her case, it was mementos of her children from the time they were born.

"If that burns, I have nothing. That's not something you can replace," she told AFP.

Even as the weather forecast offered hope, Newsom painted a grim picture of California as the canary in the climate change coal mine.

"I'm a little bit exhausted that we have to continue to debate this issue," he said in televised comments as he toured the damage. "This is a climate damn emergency. This is real, and it's happening.

- 'Complete loss' -

The August Complex Fire this week became by far the biggest recorded blaze in Californian history, ripping through 746,000 acres of dry vegetation in the state's north, as multiple fires combined.

But it is just one of around 100 large fires on the West Coast, and other rapidly growing blazes closer to populated areas have proven deadlier.

"We are at a complete loss for words right now," Bobbie Zedaker told the San Francisco Chronicle, after DNA tests proved her missing 16-year-old nephew was among those killed by the North Complex Fire.

Two more people were killed near the rural community of Happy Camp, a CalFire spokeswoman told AFP Friday.

Huge wildfires are becoming more common, with the World Meteorological Organization saying the five years to 2019 were unprecedented for fires, especially in Europe and North America.

Climate change amplifies droughts which dry out regions, creating ideal conditions for wildfires to spread out of control and inflict huge material and environmental damage.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden attacked Trump -- who downplays climate change -- in a statement expressing sympathy for people affected by the fires.

"The science is clear, and deadly signs like these are unmistakable -- climate change poses an imminent, existential threat to our way of life," Biden said.

"President Trump can try to deny that reality, but the facts are undeniable. We absolutely must act now to avoid a future defined by an unending barrage of tragedies like the one American families are enduring across the West today."

California has already seen more than 3.1 million acres burn this year -- an annual record, approximately the size of Connecticut -- with nearly four months of fire season still to come.

Before US West Coast, the world's major wildfires
Paris (AFP) Sept 11, 2020 - As US firefighters battle sprawling wildfires along the West Coast, here are some of the other major fires to have raged around the world over the past three decades.

- 2019-2020: Australia -

Fanned by strong winds, heatwave temperatures and a dry vegetation, bush fires ravaged vast areas of Australia's east coast from September 2019.

In the southeast, entire towns in New South Wales and Victoria were wiped from the map just before New Year.

In January 2020, the federal capital Canberra, threatened by flames, was placed on a state of alert. The flames were finally extinguished by heavy rains in mid-February.

At least 33 people died and 2,500 houses were destroyed. Some 11.5 million hectares (25 million acres) -- an area bigger than Portugal -- went up in smoke.

According to the official investigation the fires were clearly fanned by global warming.

- 2019: Siberia -

Gigantic forest fires rage every year on vast remote swathes of Siberia, Russia. In 2019, they were bigger than ever, stoking fears of long term environmental damage, including the melting of the Arctic ice.

In early August, with more than three million hectares in flames, President Vladimir Putin decided to send in the army to put out the fires, the smoke from which reached some of Siberia's most populous cities.

- 2019: Amazon -

In August, 2019, 30,900 fires were recorded in the Brazilian Amazon, an increase of 200 percent from the previous year and the highest figure registered for nine years.

Sao Paulo, the megacity a thousand kilometres (621 miles) away, was covered by a thick cloud of smoke.

The wildfires prompted an outpouring of emotion around the world.

They were mostly the result of arson and directly linked to deforestation, which in 2019 reached an exceptional level of 917,800 hectares.

- 2015: Indonesia -

Indonesia in 2015 experienced its worst fires in two decades. Between July and October thousands of fires in forests and farmland ravaged the archipelago, particularly the regions of Sumatra and Kalimantan. Nineteen people were killed and 1.7 million hectares of land reduced to ashes.

These fires, mostly illegally lit to clear land for agriculture such as palm oil plantations, smothered the region in a giant cloud of smoke and caused a serious diplomatic crisis with neighbouring countries.

- 2010: Russia -

At least 60 people died in fires that raged for weeks from August 2010 in western Russia, destroying whole villages and spreading a pall of smoke over the capital Moscow. The fires threatened several nuclear plants, including that of Sarov, some 500 kilometres from Moscow.

- 1996: Mongolia -

In early 1996, gigantic fires -- considered the worst of the 20th century -- ravaged two thirds of Mongolia for more than three months, killing 26.

Fourteen of the country's 21 provinces were hit by the fires which destroyed 3.7 million hectares of forest and seven million hectares of pastureland.

- 1994: United States -

Wildfires that burned in the western United States over four weeks from July 6 to August 9, 1994 claimed 20 lives and ravaged a million hectares of land in several states, including California, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Nevada, Utah and the state of Washington.

The heaviest toll was recorded on July 6, when 14 firefighters were killed after being trapped by flames at Glenwood Springs in Colorado.

Related Links
Forest and Wild Fires - News, Science and Technology

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Syria battles forest fires for seventh day straight
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