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. This is Dale Kunce, head of the Cascades Region of the American Red Cross.

Dale Kunce: “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. Washington Governor Jay Inslee said Wednesday climate change is to blame.

Gov. Jay Inslee: “Every part of our state is under attack. Every person, in some way, is under attack from the combined effects of climate change, that is tonight and today ravaging our state.”