An unprecedented spate of fierce, wind-driven wildfires in Oregon have all but destroyed five small towns, leaving a potentially high death toll in their wake, the governor said on Wednesday, as initial casualty reports began to surface.
Hundreds of miles away in northern California, three fatalities were confirmed on Wednesday from a lightning-sparked conflagration that raged with renewed intensity this week after firefighters had made significant headway containing it.
While more than two dozen major blazes continued to wreak havoc across wide swaths of California, the neighboring state of Oregon bore the latest brunt of wildfires plaguing much of the western United States over the past week.
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