Dozens of people are missing as wildfires ravage the US state of Oregon where two large blazes are threatening to merge.
Half a million people, a tenth of the state's population, have either fled their homes or been told to prepare for an evacuation.
24 people have already died in wildfires in recent weeks with millions of acres destroyed in California.
Meanwhile, footage and images of eerie orange skies in several major cities have captured international attention.
This is not #Mars. It’s #earth only. Western coast including #California is seeing record #wildfires now. A mix of extreme weather & #climate change is culprit. Check these unbelievable visuals. pic.twitter.com/fLpvaKirHJ
— Parveen Kaswan, IFS (@ParveenKaswan) September 12, 2020
Reporter Liz Weil, who is based in California, said the scale of this year's fires are unprecedented.
She told Newstalk Breakfast with Susan Keogh that "the largest wildfire in California history is burning right now".
She said: "I believe the third and fourth largest wildfires in California history are also burning at this moment too.
"It's just on a level that we have never seen before and we are just getting into what is traditionally California fire season which is the Fall.
"So there's lots more ahead."
Ms Weil added that the fires and the pandemic together are having a huge impact.
She said: "For people who need to evacuate their homes, there's the question of where you're going to go, and where you're going to go to stay safe in the pandemic and keep yourself socially distanced.
"There are people sleeping in their cars, people sleeping in tents, there are emergency shelters that have less capacity than they might have."
