US wildfires: more than 90 blazes sweep across west as death toll rises – live

The death toll from the wildfires burning out of control in, particularly, California, Oregon and Washington is bound to rise, unfortunately.

Media reports currently say at least seven or perhaps at least eight people are officially known to have died, but many are missing and House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic congresswoman from California, just said in her weekly press conference that 15 people have died so far.

It’s a horrific situation and obviously it’s going to be tricky to have hard numbers at any given time in a very fluid and dangerous crisis, where firefighters are at risk, fires are moving fast and the authorities are trying to keep up with operations on the ground as well as communications and logistics.

In the midst of these historic infernos and a coronavirus pandemic, communities and leaders alike are struggling to cope.

California is waking up to orange skies and pollution is spreading up and out from the western blazes on a worrying scale.

Good morning, we’re here with another edition of the Guardian’s special wildfire liveblog, bringing you all the developing news about the devastating blazes burning mainly in California, Oregon and Washington.

We’ll also include some analysis, relevant social media posts and the context of the climate crisis, with many of our team contributing, so do stay tuned.

• More than 90 wildfires are raging across the western US, with California worst hit but terrible blazes destroying whole communities in Oregon and huge damage in Washington state, too.
• There are serious fires burning 13 western states, driven in the short term by inflammatory weather conditions and in the bigger picture by the climate crisis.
• The wildfires have turned deadly and although it’s hard to verify how many fatalities there are so far, at least seven have been reported in total, and many more people are missing.
• California’s most severe conflagration in this latest cluster of fires, the Creek fire burning in the Sierra national forest near Fresno in the center of the state, could take at least a week and maybe a month before it is controlled enough for residents driven out to return, the authorities say.
• In Oregon, a series of fires killed three people and forced residents to flee flames, smoke and destruction. The state’s governor, Kate Brown, said hundreds of residences have been destroyed.
• There are several weeks of peak fire season to go and the forecast is dire. Strong, dry winds, drought conditions, fierce temperatures and an abundance of dry and dead vegetation are fanning the flames and huge fires can burst from no more than a spark.
• Major wind-driven fires are blazing in Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah and Wyoming, as well as the big three westernmost states in the contiguous US.