Wildfires scorch California, Colorado, and Oregon

In California, lightning from a summer thunderstorm sparked several small fires in Northern California while exacerbating a large wildfire in Tahoe National Forest. The intensity of the blaze, which has burned 45 square miles and led to evacuations, has also caused rare fire tornados. Meanwhile, the Lake Fire in Southern California has burned more than 18,000 acres with 4,500 structures currently threatened by the blaze.

In Colorado, authorities are keeping a large section of Interstate 70, the state’s main east-west highway, closed as fires consume 26,000 acres up to the edge of the road. And a blaze in Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge that had forced about 900 to evacuate was 45 percent contained as of Sunday.

What damage have the fires caused? Officials in California found at least 33 buildings burned in the Los Angeles area, while Oregon firefighters said fires consumed 31 structures. Truck drivers traveling through Colorado are struggling to make up for the long detours created by I-70’s closure.

Dig deeper: Read Seth Johnson’s report in The Sift about recent wildfires in California.

Editor’s note: WORLD has updated this report since its initial posting.