A massive wildfire that has destroyed at least 100 homes forced the residents of a second Washington town to leave their homes on Friday, and prompted a partial evacuation of a third community in a scenic valley, a sheriff said.
No injuries have been reported, Okanogan County Sheriff Frank Rogers said on Friday night. Those living in outlying areas of Brewster were also told to leave. He said he knew the damage toll has grown, but he did not have an updated number.
“We know we’ve lost more homes,” Rogers said.
Malott is home to about 500 people, while the population of Brewster is about 2,400.
The hospital in Brewster was evacuated late on Thursday.
Outlying residents were told to leave on Friday because “the fire is just kind of picking up and blowing down toward Brewster,” Rogers said.
Smoke in the town was so thick it nearly obscured the Columbia River from adjacent highways. The smoke extended all the way to Spokane, 24km to the east.
Fire swept through the town of Pateros on Thursday, leaving its 650 residents to return to large areas of smoldering rubble.
Officials said the fire, known as the Carlton Complex, has blackened more than 670km2 and continues to grow. That size estimate was up dramatically from the prior estimate of 72km2.
Friday’s dawn revealed dramatic devastation in Pateros, including solitary brick chimneys and burned-out automobiles. Most residents evacuated in advance of the flames, and some returned on Friday to see what, if anything, was left of their houses.
The pavement of US Highway 97 stopped the advance of some of the flames, protecting parts of the town.
Firefighters poured water over the remnants of homes on Friday morning, raising clouds of smoke, steam and dust. Two big water towers perched just above the town were singed black. Ash fell like snowflakes.
The fire consumed utility poles from two major power lines, knocking out power to Pateros as well as the towns of Winthrop and Twisp to the north.
Rogers said earlier his team counted 30 houses and trailers destroyed in Pateros, another 40 in a community just outside the town at Alta Lake and about 25 homes destroyed elsewhere in the county of about 40,000 people.
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
RSS