The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

Oregon wildfires race through small towns, scorching hundreds of buildings

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September 9, 2020 at 10:06 p.m. EDT
Miguel Martinez and his wife, Marta Arellano, look upon the destruction at Coleman Creek Estates in Phoenix, Ore., on Sept. 9. Hundreds of homes have been destroyed across Oregon as erratic wind and high temperatures fuel wildfires on the West Coast. (Mason Trinca for The Washington Post)

SALEM, Ore. — Amid dry heat and gusty winds, thousands of firefighters made little headway Wednesday containing scores of fires burning across the American West, as forecasts offered only slight hope that conditions would turn more favorable in coming days.

A stiffening overnight wind, sweeping from the north and east, kicked up new fires and blew new life into simmering ones from the Cascade Range in the northwest to the Angeles National Forest east of Los Angeles. Those winds are predicted to spike in Southern California during the next few days, creating fresh concern that blazes in the region could drive toward more populated areas.