In photos: Wildfires rage across the West as out-of-state crews and Australia assist
25 July 2021
Out-of-state crews went to Montana to tackle a wildfire that wounded five firefighters as Australia sent a large air tanker to help Californian firefighting efforts, as 88 large blazes raged in the U.S. Saturday.
The big picture: Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte (R) tweeted his thanks to Utah and California for sending crews over the weekend, as the two states battle their own blazes. The Australian tanker arrived in Calif., this week, where Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) proclaimed a state of emergency for four northern counties Friday.
A helicopter drops water over the Devils Creek Fire in Montana July 22, when the federal firefighters were injured after a "sudden wind shift blew the wildfire back over their position as they were constructing a defensive fire line on the perimeter:" of the blaze, per the Bureau of Land Management. Photo: BLM - Montana/Dakotas/Facebook
Fire crews work to contain the Tamarack Fire near Markleeville, Calif., July 21. The blaze along the California-Nevada state line has razed 65,152 acres and was 4% contained as of July 24. Photo: Ty O'Neil/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
A National Guard Humvee stationed at a closed juncture during the Bootleg Fire, in the mountains outside of Lakeside, Oregon, U.S., on July 24, is the biggest of the blazes engulfing mostly western U.S. states. It has burned 408,248 acres and was 46% as of July 24. The spread has been curtailed amid a reduction in "general winds and shading of fuels from an inversion," Inciweb notes. Photo: Maranie Staab/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Resident Pamela Aylen and her husband, Dan, at their home in a rural part of Twain, California, on July 24, are ignoring an evacuation order over the Dixie Fire, saying: "If we're going to get taken out, we're going out swinging." Photo: Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images
The sun sets behind the Grand Teton peak, shrouded in smoke from regional wildfires July 14 at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, where four large wildfires are burning as of July 24. Photo: Natalie Behring/Getty Images
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.