Another punishing heat wave is set to bring triple-digit temperatures to at least 17 million people in the western United States and Canada

Portland, July 15 (RHC)-- Another punishing heat wave is set to bring triple-digit temperatures to at least 17 million people in the western United States and Canada this weekend, as a record wildfire season — fueled by the climate crisis — shows no sign of letting up. 

In Oregon, the massive Bootleg Fire has burned more than 200,000 acres.  Over a million acres of the western U.S. and Canada are now in flames. 

Dale Kunce, head of the Cascades Region of the American Red Cross, told reporters: “What we’ve seen as the Red Cross is really this change from one big event a year or one big event every five years or 10 years to now we’re seeing chronic events.”

In northeastern Washington state, hundreds of residents of the Colville Indian Reservation were forced to evacuate after a wildfire sparked by lightning grew rapidly.