TV News LIES

Three major wildfires burning near Spokane, Washington, caused authorities to declare a state of emergency and forced thousands of people to evacuate.

The Old Trails, Fairview and Autumn Lane fires have scorched over 7,700 acres with 0% containment as of 2:45 p.m. ET on Aug. 2, Benjamin Cossel – public information officer for the California Interagency Incident Management Team 7 – confirmed to USA TODAY. Cossel said that more than 600 structures have been destroyed by the fires, a number that he said is likely to rise. He added that Autumn Lane was the "fire of concern" for Aug. 2.

Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson declared a statewide emergency and burn ban on Aug. 1. Multiple areas of Spokane are under a Level 3 evacuation order, the highest level in the state. About 5,000 homes have been evacuated, according to the Associated Press.

"We urge residents of Spokane to heed evacuation orders and to stay alert to changing conditions and evacuations as they are rapidly changing," Courtney James, spokesperson for the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, told CBS News.

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A heatwave scorching the western US region has elevated the risk of hazardous fire conditions particularly in parts of Oregon and Washington, where low humidity and powerful winds have put officials on alert for wildfire spread.

The National Weather Service has forecast blistering temperatures through early next week that could climb from 110F to 120F across the south-west. In the Pacific north-west, highs reaching into the 90s are expected in the days to come.

Several western states are dealing with devastating wildfire seasons.

In Oregon, about 1.8m acres (730,000 hectares) have reportedly been torched, as of July.

A rare “particularly dangerous situation” was assigned to a red flag warning in effect for eastern Oregon on Saturday, where weather officials have forecast gusts of wind from 30-40mph.

In Washington, more than 1,000 fires have torn through roughly 425,000 acres, a level of destruction not seen since 2021, according to the state department of natural resources. State officials are also working to contain 12 large fires that cumulatively have set more than 200,000 acres ablaze.

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The sky outside is hazy orange, and my five-year-old son is screaming bloody murder. “Sorry, buddy, we have to stay inside,” I say. “It’s not safe to breathe out there.” I had told him we’d be going to the beach today. Something inside me tears a little as I wonder how many promises he’ll see similarly broken in the coming years.

Far too many parents were forced to have some version of this conversation with their children this month, as smoke from record-breaking wildfires poured across the midwest and north-east. Some of them already had to tell their kids that their Fourth of July festivities were canceled because of the lethal heatwave that caused numerous mass casualty events earlier this month.

According to scientists, these extreme weather events are not “natural” disasters. A team of researchers already published a study finding that the Fourth of July heat wave would have been “virtually impossible” but for the climate crisis. Other studies – using methods recently validated by the National Academy of Sciences, the country’s top scientific advisory body – found that the pollution from individual big oil companies such as ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell and BP made some past climate-exacerbated heatwaves at least 10,000 times more likely compared with preindustrial levels.

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Large swaths of Central Oregon have become consumed by wildfire, with several blazes burning across the region simultaneously, forcing thousands to evacuate and further stretching the state’s limited firefighting resources.

Over the weekend, the Bench Fire just west of Madras quickly grew to more than 20,000 acres with 0% containment. That led to Level 3 “Go Now” evacuation orders for the entirety of Warm Springs and other areas of Jefferson County.

Officials said Monday at least six homes and five outbuildings had been destroyed.

The Beachcomb Fire, also located near the reservation, combined with the Bench Fire by Sunday. On Monday morning, officials announced the two fires were together being called the Bench Fire and had collectively burned more than 40,000 acres.

Highway 26 was temporarily closed at one point over the weekend between Warm Springs and Madras as firefighters worked to get the fire under control. The highway closed again Sunday between Prineville and John Day, except to local traffic and local deliveries, and had not reopened as of Monday morning.

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A tornado struck north-eastern Wisconsin on Monday, blackening the midday sky and sending workers sheltering in office basements as ferocious winds splintered homes, scattered twisted metal across a highway and knocked out power to more than 30,000 people.

The National Weather Service confirmed a tornado in Winnebago county, about 90 miles (145km) north-west of Milwaukee. Damage was reported in cities including Appleton and Menasha, where police chief Matt Albrecht said some homes and businesses were “severely impacted”.

The tornado ripped roofs off homes and flipped vehicles in Menasha, just blocks from the shores of Lake Winnebago. Video showed a trail of destruction, with some homes reduced to their outer walls.

Greg Van Driest was working in downtown Appleton when the sky got as dark as night.

“The word we all were using was ‘ominous’,” he said. “It’s like, ‘Whoa, look at that …’ You looked outside and you thought it was three in the morning, it was that dark.”

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At least 40 million people were under extreme heat warnings across central and southern parts of the United States on Sunday as high temperatures and severe humidity gripped large swaths of the country for a second straight day.

Heat indexes well above 100F (38C) stretched from Minnesota down to Mississippi, extending west into southern California and Nevada. Parts of the south-west were expected to see highs of 120F (49C), according to the National Weather Service.

Meteorologists said the sweltering weather was the result of another heat dome – a phenomenon in which atmospheric conditions trap heat, accentuating and prolonging already high temperatures.

“It’s extraordinarily hot,” said Pete Miller, an outreach manager for the homeless services network Threshold CoC, which was passing out water bottles to residents in Omaha, Nebraska, on Sunday.

“We’re seeing a lot of people who are exhausted, drained by the heat in a way that is really dangerous,” Miller added. “The humidity is insane. You stand outside for 30 seconds and you get drenched. And it’s going to be like that all night.”

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