AFP, Los Angeles :
President Barack Obama declared an emergency Friday for wildfire-ravaged Washington state, as Australia and New Zealand sent firefighters to help US crews struggling to contain deadly blazes across America’s drought-stricken West.
Obama’s declaration releases federal funds to help in relief efforts in the northwestern state, where several fires are burning out of control and three firefighters have been killed. Large wildfires are currently blazing across 10 US states, with active fires burning some 1.3 million acres (526,000 hectares).
“Many residents in Washington, as well as other western states, remain evacuated as firefighters work to contain large fires across the West,” the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) said.
Particularly worrying is a series of blazes called the Okanogan Complex, which is made up of five wildfires in north-central Washington.
More than 5,100 homes are threatened, the KING-TV news station reported, and an unspecified number of buildings have already been destroyed.
With firefighters spread thin across the vast American West, the NIFC said a contingent of personnel from Australia and New Zealand was expected to arrive in Boise, Idaho on Sunday.
Some 71 firefighters and other personnel had been requested, although the final details were still being worked out, the NIFC said. The state of Idaho is one of the hardest-hit, with 17 large fires burning on Friday, as Washington, Oregon and California trailed close behind.
As of Wednesday, there were nearly 30,000 US firefighters and support staff battling the blazes.
Canada and the US military have also sent crews to help with the effort, which Australia and New Zealand now join.
“Australia and New Zealand have been key partners with the US fire community for more than 50 years but were last mobilized in 2008 when severe fire activity was similar to this year,” the NIFC said. The center said three firefighters were killed on Thursday.
US media reported that they died in Washington after their vehicle crashed and was overtaken by flames. Meanwhile, emergency officials extended evacuation orders on Friday to additional towns threatened by a deadly array of wildfires in north-central Washington state as dozens of blazes swirled across the drought-parched Pacific Northwest and surrounding regions.
Meanwhile firefighters flee as the Twisp River fire advances unexpectedly near Twisp, Washington on Friday President Barack Obama signed a federal declaration of emergency for Washington state on Friday, authorizing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate relief efforts in 11 counties and several Indian reservations hard hit by wildfires.
Authorities late on Thursday ordered the population of Tonasket, a riverfront hamlet of about 1,000 residents just 25 miles (40 km) south of the Canadian border, to flee their homes as flames closed in. About 25 miles (40 km) farther south along the same river, emergency officials early on Friday issued additional evacuation orders for parts of Okanogan, a larger town at the western edge of the Colville Indian Reservation, urging evacuees in a Facebook posting “not to wait for door-to-door notification.”
Both communities were in the path of flames from a cluster of wildfires dubbed the Okanogan Complex, which has doubled in size since Thursday to scorch some 161,000 acres (65,154 hectares) of brush and dry timber about 115 miles (185 km) northeast of Seattle.
President Barack Obama declared an emergency Friday for wildfire-ravaged Washington state, as Australia and New Zealand sent firefighters to help US crews struggling to contain deadly blazes across America’s drought-stricken West.
Obama’s declaration releases federal funds to help in relief efforts in the northwestern state, where several fires are burning out of control and three firefighters have been killed. Large wildfires are currently blazing across 10 US states, with active fires burning some 1.3 million acres (526,000 hectares).
“Many residents in Washington, as well as other western states, remain evacuated as firefighters work to contain large fires across the West,” the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) said.
Particularly worrying is a series of blazes called the Okanogan Complex, which is made up of five wildfires in north-central Washington.
More than 5,100 homes are threatened, the KING-TV news station reported, and an unspecified number of buildings have already been destroyed.
With firefighters spread thin across the vast American West, the NIFC said a contingent of personnel from Australia and New Zealand was expected to arrive in Boise, Idaho on Sunday.
Some 71 firefighters and other personnel had been requested, although the final details were still being worked out, the NIFC said. The state of Idaho is one of the hardest-hit, with 17 large fires burning on Friday, as Washington, Oregon and California trailed close behind.
As of Wednesday, there were nearly 30,000 US firefighters and support staff battling the blazes.
Canada and the US military have also sent crews to help with the effort, which Australia and New Zealand now join.
“Australia and New Zealand have been key partners with the US fire community for more than 50 years but were last mobilized in 2008 when severe fire activity was similar to this year,” the NIFC said. The center said three firefighters were killed on Thursday.
US media reported that they died in Washington after their vehicle crashed and was overtaken by flames. Meanwhile, emergency officials extended evacuation orders on Friday to additional towns threatened by a deadly array of wildfires in north-central Washington state as dozens of blazes swirled across the drought-parched Pacific Northwest and surrounding regions.
Meanwhile firefighters flee as the Twisp River fire advances unexpectedly near Twisp, Washington on Friday President Barack Obama signed a federal declaration of emergency for Washington state on Friday, authorizing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate relief efforts in 11 counties and several Indian reservations hard hit by wildfires.
Authorities late on Thursday ordered the population of Tonasket, a riverfront hamlet of about 1,000 residents just 25 miles (40 km) south of the Canadian border, to flee their homes as flames closed in. About 25 miles (40 km) farther south along the same river, emergency officials early on Friday issued additional evacuation orders for parts of Okanogan, a larger town at the western edge of the Colville Indian Reservation, urging evacuees in a Facebook posting “not to wait for door-to-door notification.”
Both communities were in the path of flames from a cluster of wildfires dubbed the Okanogan Complex, which has doubled in size since Thursday to scorch some 161,000 acres (65,154 hectares) of brush and dry timber about 115 miles (185 km) northeast of Seattle.
