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Winds and lightning strikes have sparked and fanned wildfires across the Pacific Northwest this week, including the largest fire in the United States, which was rapidly expanding near the Oregon-Idaho border on Friday.

The Durkee Fire near Huntington, Oregon, about 100 miles (160 km) north of Boise, Idaho, has scorched 600 square miles (1,553 square km), an area more than half the size of Rhode Island’s land mass, authorities said. It is threatening several towns.

The blaze was set off by lightning on July 17, and wind gusts up to 60 mph (97 kph) drove the flames across brush, timberland and ranches, killing hundreds of cattle. The fire was only 20% contained on Friday, officials said.

While there is zero chance of rain through next week, winds have dropped and cooler air is in store, said meteorologist Marc Chenard of the National Weather Service.

‘Hopefully it gives firefighters a break,’ he said.

As of Thursday, wildfires this year have burned almost 1 million acres (405,000 hectares) in Oregon and 125,900 acres in Washington, according to the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center in Portland, Oregon.

Those numbers will grow, said Carol Connolly, a spokesperson for the agency. ‘We have 54 large uncontained fires going on in Oregon,’ she said.

In 2020, the worst year in recent memory, Oregon wildfires scorched more than 1.14 million acres, according to a tally by CBS TV affiliate KOIN.

In California, the Park Fire, believed to have been started by an arsonist, has forced the evacuation of more than 4,000 residents in Butte County, about 100 miles (160 km) northeast of Sacramento.

The Park Fire burns in Forest Ranch, California, July 25, 2024.

A suspect was arrested on Thursday, accused of pushing a burning car down a bone-dry gully.

The fire grew uncontrolled overnight from 125,000 acres on Thursday to 164,200 acres on Friday morning, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

‘The biggest challenge with this fire is getting to it,’ said Fire Captain Dan Collins. ‘It’s steep land with almost no roads. It’s hard to get our people and equipment to the fire lines.’

Forecasters warned that winds would reach 30 mph (48 kph) on Friday and through the weekend. Combined with low humidity, it is a recipe for rapid growth, officials said.

Smoke from fires in western Canada and the Pacific Northwest have brought hazy skies and unhealthy air from the Rocky Mountains to Minneapolis and as far east as Detroit, weather reports said.

Denver had the worst air quality in the U.S. on Friday and ranked the 30th worst in the world, according to IQAir, a group that tracks air pollution across the globe.

Much of the smoke coming into the Central and Eastern U.S. comes from a raging wildfire in the mountainous Jasper National Park in the Canadian province of Alberta.

The park and the town of Jasper, which draws more than 2 million tourists a year, were evacuated on Monday, displacing 10,000 residents and 15,000 park visitors. As much as half of the structures in the town could be damaged or destroyed, officials said, as the blaze burned more than 89,000 acres as of late Thursday.

Videos posted on social media show entire streets leveled by the blazes in the Alberta province, with scorched trees, charred metal skeletons of cars, and nothing but rubble where homes and businesses had stood.

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  Reuters

  Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world’s largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

Levi Edwards Scott Boe asks: “After OTAs, who appears to be the lead dogs at the cornerback position?”

All eyes are on Jack Jones and Nate Hobbs to lead the way. Last season, Jones returned two interceptions for touchdowns in divisional victories against the Los Angeles Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs, while Hobbs set career highs in pass deflections (seven), tackles for loss (six) and solo tackles (59).

While Hobbs is expected to remain a big piece of the secondary, it seems he’ll settle back into the nickel cornerback role he played the majority of his rookie year. Therefore, the Raiders are looking at several all options for the outside cornerback position opposite of Jones.

Cornerbacks that stood out in OTAs and minicamp were Brandon Facyson and Jakorian Bennett. Facyson is hitting the ground running this offseason following an injury that forced him to miss 14 games last season. The 6-foot-2 cornerback led the team in pass deflections (13) in 2021.

“I think the sky’s the limit for him,” Hobbs said about Facyson. “I feel like people forget my rookie year, 2021, how he started the last half of the season, and went man for man with every receiver who was a top-ranked receiver and shut them down, essentially. Once he gets in his bag, he’s hard to stop. He makes it very hard on the opposing team. He’s just a physical specimen, is what I call him. Great dude, too – great energy, great positivity.”

Bennett, a 2023 fourth-round pick, is looking to settle in after some growing pains throughout his rookie campaign. He’s made the most of his offseason reps, including nabbing two interceptions in minicamp. His speed and instinctual ability to make plays have been noticeable.

3 Raiders ranked on CBS Sports’ Top 100 Players of 2024 When the Raiders report to training camp and more key dates for 2024 season Consistency is key for safety tandem of Tre’von Moehrig and Marcus Epps David Winderbaum from New York asks: “Who do you see has the potential to be the under the radar success story this coming season?”

I see a lot of potential for the Raiders running back room to play beyond their expectations.

Zamir White is coming up to the plate after seeing limited game action through his first two seasons. Nevertheless, he’s showed what he can become as a starting running back. He averaged nearly five yards a carry in four starts last year and has been working diligently this offseason to improve as a pass catcher.

“Very, very talented young man that’s going into his third year,” running backs coach Cadillac Williams said. “Raw, but got a chance to be really good. Big, physical, strong, quick, can do a lot of things that again you don’t have to coach. The potential there is incredible. I think just a young man that’s got to continue to hone in on the little things and continue to define his skills, but with time and him trusting the process, trusting himself and us coaches putting him in the right position to be successful, man he is going to flourish.”

There’s also Alexander Mattison, who played the lead back role with the Minnesota Vikings last season to the tune of three receiving touchdowns. I also must include sixth-round pick Dylan Laube from New Hampshire. He’s worked his way into seeing some first-team reps in these early practices. He was one of 11 FCS players selected in the 2024 NFL Draft.

Cliff Peddle from Ontario, Canada asks: “I have high hopes for AOC. Do you think he can be a successful starter in the NFL?”

While in small doses, Aidan O’Connell has already proven he can be a successful NFL starter.

Despite starting in a little over half of the 2023 Raiders games, the fourth-rounder ranked in the top three of all rookie quarterbacks in passing yards, pass completions, passing touchdowns and quarterback rating (min. 10 games). He started coming into his own late down the stretch with a 8:0 touchdown-interception ratio and 3-1 record his last four games of the season.

“Just watching from afar last year, I was incredibly impressed with how he handled the situation,” quarterbacks coach Rich Scangarello said. “I just feel like the individual is everything you’d hoped he’d be. He’s just got a lot of internal drive, discipline, how he sees the game the right way. He wants to be great. He’ll work at it. He’s selfless and he has a great deal of respect among the teammates, the coaching staff and everyone in the building. So, I think to do that as a rookie thrown into how he was, I give him a lot of credit and says a lot about the individual, and without that it’s tough to be successful in this league, definitely to be great at the position.”

At this point in his young career, he’s certainly proved he can be a capable starting quarterback. But with hopes to make a leap into a consistent force in Year 2, he’ll need to first win the starting quarterback job in a training camp battle against Pro Bowler Gardner Minshew II.