вЂњShe thinks she knows where it is,вЂќ he said, вЂњYou know - hope.вЂќ Steve Chenault, 68, who works part time for the state Department of Transportation, watched as his wife combed their wreckage for jewelry and other keepsakes. Across the road, the canyon dropped off into the Little North Santiam River, a natural fire break that saved some of their neighborsвЂ™ homes. When they returned Friday morning, their rural road was engulfed in an ashy haze, the sun an ominous red ball. (Molly Hennessy-Fiske / Los Angeles Times) Kate Brown said the stateвЂ™s air quality ranked worst in the world. The scene was at once historic and horrific as tens of thousands evacuated, and houses and buildings were consumed.ДЄt a Friday briefing, Gov. Blazes have burned more than 1 million acres - 1,500 square miles, a span larger than Rhode Island and about double the destruction of smaller fires in yearsвЂ™ past.

вЂњI donвЂ™t think thereвЂ™s going to be anything to save.вЂќДЄcross Oregon on Friday, fire officials reported 35 fires were raging after a week of deadly blazes fueled by unseasonably strong winds and dry weather turned much of the Pacific Northwest into an inferno. вЂњWeвЂ™ve never seen anything like this,вЂќ said Chenault, 68, who moved to the lush canyon east of Salem with her husband 30 years ago from Anaheim, never expecting wildfires to follow them to the Pacific Northwest. Seeing the charred ruins of her home for the first time after wildfires ripped through the towering firs and oaks of surrounding Santiam Canyon, killing a neighboring boy and his grandmother, Mary Chenault stifled tears in the smoky air.

Pacific northwest wildfires