Wildfires in US getting wilder and nearer to urban areas

Troutdale, Oregon

SOME fires suddenly exploded in size. One in Montana doubled in 24 hours, charring 78 square miles overnight - an area bigger than Brooklyn, a borough in New York City. Already-burning fires started new ones, shooting embers like artillery barrages, including one that apparently jumped several miles across the Columbia River into Washington from Oregon, breaching a natural firebreak that long seemed impregnable.

Extreme fire behaviour - difficult to predict and dangerous to fight - has been the watchword of the 2017 season across the US West. More large, uncontrolled wildfires were burning in 10 Western states in early September than at any comparable time since 2006.

And those fires have leaned in, menacing more lives and property, by their size and their proximity, than in any recent season. Two firefighters died in Montana, and dozens of buildings and homes have been destroyed in Cal…