20 July 2021
Fire officials are seeing resources stretched to the limit as scores of wildfires burn across the U.S. and Canada amid hot, dry conditions.
Threat level: In Oregon, officials have called in firefighting support from outside the Pacific Northwest — as the biggest blaze in the U.S., the Bootleg Fire, swelled to 537 square miles Monday.
- The potential for more "dry lightning" has left the Oregon officials concerned that more wildfires could ignite, so they've turned to authorities in Arkansas, Nevada and Alaska for equipment including fire engines, according to a statement by Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest officials Monday.
- In California, the Beckwourth Complex fire, comprising two blazes in the Plumas National Forest, was 88% contained Monday. So firefighters who hadn't been redeployed were "recovering equipment" and preparing for the potential of new wildfires, officials told the Los Angeles Times.
- In Canada, evacuees from fires in British Colombia's interior were struggling to find vacant accommodation.
Currently we have a competition over evacuee accommodation in the interior of BC. Too many fires impacting too many communities. Thinking of all those trying to respond and provide services during such a complex situation. https://t.co/Ljsule3kPU
— Amy Christianson (@ChristiansonAmy) July 20, 2021
By the numbers: 80 large wildfires have burned nearly 1.2 million acres across 13 U.S. western states — including 18 in Montana, 17 in Idaho, and nine in California, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
- "At least 2,000 homes" in Oregon have been evacuated from the Bootleg Fire at some point, as it swells by miles every day — with a further 5,000 properties threatened, per AP. "At least 70 homes and more than 100 outbuildings have gone up in flames," the agency notes.
- In California, evacuation orders were in effect in Alpine County, near the Nevada state line, as the Tamarack Fire that's razed 23,000 acres continued to burn uncontained.
- Canadian firefighters are battling hundreds of wildfires in British Columbia — including 150 new fires that erupted over the weekend, Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center data shows.
- Hundreds of new evacuation orders were issued in the province, as the Inkaneep Creek Fire swelled to more than 1,700 acres Monday night, CBC notes.
Driving the news: Many of the wildfires started amid an unprecedented heat wave that scientists say was driven by human-caused climate change.
Go deeper: FEMA chief heads West as large wildfires rage, heat wave peaks
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.
