US wildfires: More than half a million people are leaving their homes in Oregon

Wildfires are burning across many states in the western part of the US

More than half a million people are leaving their homes in the US state of Oregon to escape wildfires.

The state of Oregon shares its borders with Washington and California, where they are also having big problems with fires.

These states have recently had intense heat waves. These hot and dry conditions are the perfect for wildfires to spread.

Across the western states in the US there are 96 large fires, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

Firefighters and police all over these states are helping to control the fires and evacuate people.

President Donald Trump has approved a state emergency declaration.

This means the national government will give money to Oregon which will go towards food, shelter and rescue missions.

People across the western states of the US have been leaving their homes for safety

What's happening in Oregon?

Officials in Oregon have said more than half a million people have been evacuated because of wildfires.

That is more than 10% of the population of the state.

Thousands of kilometres of land has been burned and some towns destroyed because of the fires this week.

There are about 3,000 firefighters in the state helping to control the fires. Oregon has not seen fire conditions like this for three decades.

Governor for Oregon Kate Brown said: "Our number-one priority right now is saving lives."

Lots of homes and buildings have been destroyed

What is happening elsewhere?

Next to Oregon is the state of Washington which is also suffering from wildfires and thousands of people have evacuated their homes there too.

Governor for Washington, Jay Inslee, said he wanted to thank the firefighters and he also commented on the impact of climate change. "And I'll be thinking of these fires and the communities they're impacting when we take our next steps to defeat climate change."

On the other side of Oregon is California. More than 14,000 firefighters are taking on more than 28 major blazes there.

The wildfires there have burned through more than 2.5 million acres n the state this year according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).

This week people in San Francisco, in the state of California, woke up to an orange sky because of the smoke the fires caused.

Six of the largest wildfires recorded in the history of California have now happened in 2020.

Four people have died in Oregon and one child has died in Washington, according to police.

Firefighters are working to control the fires

Why is this happening?

There are a lot of reasons why the fires started, such as lightening striking.

However experts have said due to climate change we are seeing more extreme weather conditions. This doesn't spark the wildfires but it helps set the condition for them to spread and become bigger.