Rapidly growing wildfire forcing evacuations in Oregon

Welcome back to America TONIGHT Right now, thousands of people in Central Oregon have had to evacuate as a wildfire threatens to engulf their homes. The Darlene 3 wildfires burned more than 2000 acres so far and crews have it just 30% contained. Scripps News national correspondent Clayton Sandall joins us now live from Denver. Clayton, this latest fire is coming at the same time as a new study about wildfires and climate. What can you tell us? Hey, Chris. Good evening. Yeah, this fire started Tuesday and grew rapidly, driven by strong winds. You can see in some of the video that the huge plumes of smoke rising into the air, prompting evacuations in the Central Oregon town of Lapine. The local sheriff says evacuation alerts were sent to about 1100 homes and businesses. They've also opened shelters for people and animals who need a place to stay. While firefighters are attacking this place from the air and the ground, they actually use bulldozers overnight to create a fire break to stop the flames from reaching the town. This fire is also about 30 miles South of Bend, OR, a popular summer vacation destination. I want to show you some numbers of the current wildfires in the US. Right now there are 42 fires burning in the US Nineteen of them are still at 0 containment. And there are about 6400 firefighters and personnel working these fires around the country. And fire officials are hoping that number does not go up, especially as we get closer to the 4th of July. They are already warning about the dangers of fireworks, especially in these hot, dry conditions. And Chris, you mentioned that study by researchers at the University of Tasmania in Australia. They studied satellite data and found that both the frequency and the size of wildfires around the world has doubled in the past two decades. And they are blaming a hotter climate. They say one side effect of humans warming the planet is that night time temperatures are not cooling down, which means the fires aren't calming at night like they used to. That makes it much harder for firefighters to get that nighttime advantage and knock those flames down, they point out. The six most extreme fire years, Chris, have all occurred since 2017. Yeah, wow. And of course, you and Denver know the power of wildfires when they happen, as well as many people across the West. Clayton Sandel for us tonight from Denver. Clayton, thank you.