'There is no escape. The entire state is burning.' - Entrepreneur Generations

A wildfire burned in August in the Lolo National Forest in Montana.
(The Great Falls Tribune photo by Rion Sanders)

Hurricanes are getting the lion's share of attention from the media, but wildfires are raging across the Western U.S. and Canada right now in one of the worst wildfire seasons in recorded history, Linda Wertheimer reports for NPR. The fires are coming at a time of year when temperatures are usually cooling and the fire season is normally winding down.

"We currently have about 123 large wildland fires across the nation. They are primarily in the Northwest," said Chris Wilcox of the National Interagency Fire Center in an interview with Wertheimer. "Montana is another state that has been under the siege that we've seen this year, as well. So we have currently about 2 million acres on fire across the West." Wilcox said the fire season has been particularly long, and that it really started in the fall of 2016 in the Southern U.S. It stayed active in those areas over the winter and has now moved and spread westward from there.

Wilcox said the NIFC has more than 25,000 responders out working on the wildfires, but they are stretched thin. All the nation's wildfire fighting resources have been committed to battling the blaze, and the National Guard has been brought in to help in several states. And not only is the fire dangerous, but the smoke is too. A high air pressure system over the Northwest has kept the smoky air essentially trapped in the area, causing more distress for people living in those areas.

The fire and smoke are making life miserable for residents, sometimes even dangerous. Nancy Wartik of The New York Times curated responses from readers who were asked on Facebook how the fires were affecting them. Readers were upset their kids can't play safely outside, angry at the media for largely ignoring the fires, concerned about climate change, appreciative of the responders who are fighting the fires, and worried about their health. Reader Amber Conger of Helena, Montana, told the Times: "There is no escape. The entire state is burning. The sun glows red. The air is polluted with thick smoke and ash falls like snowflakes from the sky."

from The Rural Blog http://ift.tt/2wVuZVP 'There is no escape. The entire state is burning.' - Entrepreneur Generations

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