Why California & Oregon Wildfires Are Worse Than Ever

But the fires aren’t relegated to just California: In Oregon, tens of thousands of people have been forced to evacuate in the last couple days alone. Oregon Governor Kate Brown declared a state of emergency citing gusts of high wind as a catalyst for a “once-in-a-generation” wildfire that has already burned upwards of 3,000 acres. The biggest blaze, the Almeda Fire, which forced the entirety of Medford, OR’s 82,000 person population to flee was still at zero percent containment as of Tuesday night, according to Jackson County Emergency Management. On Tuesday morning, high winds caused power outages for 100,000 people in Oregon and Washington.