Everything you need to know about the ‘unprecedented’ U.S. bushfires

It’s been called an unprecedented bushfire season that may kill more people than any bushfire season in Oregon’s history.
In California, fires have burned a record-breaking 2.5 million acres - almost 20 times what had burned by this time last year.
Whole towns have been destroyed. The 35 active fires have destroyed up to 1,000 homes. At least seven people have died, including a one-year-old.
Here’s everything you need to know.
It’s not just California
The headlines talk about bushfires ravaging California, but that’s not the full picture.
Nearly 100 bushfires are burning in Oregon, where five small towns have been destroyed and three people killed.
In Washington state on Wednesday, firefighters estimate more acres were burned in one day than in an average bushfire season.
“We expect to see a great deal of loss, both in structures and in human lives… This could be the greatest loss of human lives and property due to wildfire in our state’s history.”
Oregon Governor Kate Brown
Mass evacuations across the U.S. west
In California, Washington and Oregon tens of thousands of people have evacuated their homes after firefighters were forced to retreat due to tough fire conditions.
Governor Brown said thousands more Oregon citizens would need to evacuate in the coming weeks.
Hundreds of thousands are without power due to the blaze.
Climate change has contributed towards more severe bushfire seasons in the U.S.
“This climate-change connection is straightforward: warmer temperatures dry out fuels. In areas with abundant and very dry fuels, all you need is a spark… climate change, in a few different ways, seems to also load the dice toward more fire in the future.”
Dr Park Williams, bioclimatologist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.