Three firefighters were killed and four others injured Wednesday while battling a raging wildfire in Washington state in the northwestern United States.
Authorities say the firefighters were battling a fast-moving blaze threatening a small town in the north-central part of the state when the fire shifted. A local law enforcement official described the conditions to a Seattle television station as “a hellstorm.”
About 1,500 residents in three towns in the fire zone were ordered to evacuate.
In an emailed statement, the White House said President Barack Obama had been apprised of the deaths. He directed the administration to stay in touch with state and local officials and to provide federal assistance as necessary.
“On behalf of a grateful nation, the president’s thoughts and prayers are with the families of these brave Americans,” said White House spokesman Eric Schultz.
“My heart breaks over the loss of the life,” Washington state Governor Jay Inslee said in a written statement.
Inslee has asked the federal government to declare a state of emergency for the state, which would provide more resources to help battle dozens of separate blazes. He said the fires have destroyed 50 homes and 60 other buildings, and consumed more than 95,000 hectares of land across the state.
A larger group of fires burning to the east covered about 50 square miles and prompted the evacuation of Conconully, home to about 200 people 20 miles northwest of Omak – with further urgent evacuation orders issued Wednesday night for an area south of Conconully to the Omak town line.
To the south, more than 1,100 firefighters were fighting a fire that topped 108 square miles and was still threatening the resort town of Chelan.
Angela Seydel, a spokeswoman for Okanogan Emergency Management, said Wednesday evening that 4,000 homes in the region had been evacuated.
“It is really bad out there. The fires have just exploded,” she said. “We’re just directing everybody to head south.”
A stream of cars poured south out of Twisp as dark smoke clouds loomed; the highway to the north was closed. Some people put sprinklers on their roofs in an effort to protect their homes, and others joined lines for gasoline that were several cars deep.
The U.S. National Weather Service has issued a “red-flag” warning for the eastern part of Washington state through Friday, with strong winds up to 72 kilometers an hour and thunderstorms expected.
The fires in Washington state are some of the nearly 100 large wildfires are blazing across the western United States, including California, Idaho, Montana and Oregon, fueled by a combination of drought and heat.
Some material for this report came from the Associated Press.
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