Wildfires continued their march across the West yesterday, forcing the evacuation of 500,000 Oregonians, incinerating an area the size of New Jersey and forcing officials to confront conspiracy theories. More than 7,100 square miles in the West is ablaze, thousands of homes and structures have been incinerated, and at least 15 people have died. The fires' speed and intensity astonished even battle-hardened wildfire experts. "It's a historic season on top of a historic season that replaced a historic season. We just keep setting new precedents, and then we keep destroying them," said Sean Norman, a battalion chief with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. In California, 29 large fires are now burning, incinerating 4,800 square miles. The most dangerous appear to be the North Complex fires, which exploded this week northeast of Sacramento. There were 10 confirmed deaths from those fires in just two days, and rescue crews are searching for more than a dozen missing people.
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