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Relentless Blaze Engulfs the West in Smoke and Fear
無情的大火在煙霧和恐懼中吞沒了美國西部
By Thomas Fuller and Jack Healy
文/托馬斯·富勒，杰克·希利
Across a hellish landscape of smoke and ash,
周日，在煙塵滾滾，猶如人間地獄的一片景象中，
authorities in Oregon, California and Washington State battled to contain mega-wildfires on Sunday
俄勒岡州、加利福尼亞州和華盛頓州當局奮力控制著燎原巨火的火勢，
as shifting winds threatened to accelerate blazes that have burned an unimaginable swath of land across the West.
截至此時，大火已經燒毀西部大地的大片土地，受災面積難以想象，不僅如此，風向的變化隨時可能進一步加速大火的蔓延。
The arrival of the stronger winds on Sunday tested the resolve of fire crews already exhausted by weeks of combating blazes
周日強風的到來考驗著已經被持續數周的滅火工作壓榨得筋疲力盡的消防官兵們的決心，
that have consumed around 5 million acres of desiccated forests, incinerated numerous communities
在那期間，大火吞噬了大約500萬英畝的森林，燒毀了許多社區，
and created what in many places was measured as the worst air quality on the planet.
還導致許多地方測量出來的空氣質量淪為了地球上最糟糕的空氣質量。
"There's just so much fire," said Ryan Walbrun, a fire weather meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
“火實在是太大了，”國家氣象局火災氣象學家瑞安·沃爾布倫說。
"And so much smoke."
“而且煙實在是太濃了。”
The fires, which have killed at least 24 people in the last week alone, have engulfed the region in anguish and fear,
此次火災，上周一周就造成了至少24人死亡，整個西部地區都陷入了深深的痛苦和恐懼之中，
as fairgrounds have turned into refugee camps for many who have been forced from their homes.
游樂場已經變成了無數被迫棄家而逃之人的避難所。
The choking smoke cast a dark pall over the skies and created a vision of climate-change disaster
令人窒息的煙霧給天空蒙上了一層烏云，營造出一幅氣候變化災難的景象，
that made worst-case scenarios for the future a terrifying reality for the present.
將原本未來可能出現的最糟糕的情形提前兌現成了當前的可怕現實。
"I drove 600 miles up and down the state, and I never escaped the smoke,"
“我開了600英里都沒有逃出濃煙。”
Senator Jeff Merkley, Democrat of Oregon, said Sunday on the television program, "This Week."
周日俄勒岡州民主黨參議員杰夫·默克利在電視節目《本周》中說道。
"We have thousands of people who have lost their homes. I could have never envisioned this."
“成千上萬的百姓沒有了家。我從未想過會發生這樣的事。”
As the West burns there is consensus among scientists of the role that climate change is playing in the size and intensity of the fires.
就在西部大火肆虐之際，科學家們達成了一致看法，認為氣候變化在此次火災的規模和強度中扮演了重要角色。
"Fundamentally the science is very, very simple," said Philip B. Duffy,
“從根本上說，這一結論依據的科學原理非常、非常簡單，”
a climate scientist who is president of the Woodwell Climate Research Center.
伍德韋爾氣候研究中心主席、氣候科學家菲利普·B·達菲說。
"Warmer and drier conditions create drier fuel," said Dr. Duffy, a physicist.
“溫暖、干燥的環境會讓（火災所需的）燃料也變得更為干燥，”（是氣候學家）也是物理學家的達菲博士說道。
"What would have been a fire easily extinguished now just grows very quickly and becomes out of control."
“就導致原本應該很容易撲滅的大火現在變得氣勢洶洶，超出了我們的控制范圍。”
Winds are often the decisive factor between fires that can be controlled
一場大火究竟是人力可控范圍內的大火，
and those that move with such ferocity and speed that the best the authorities can do is move people out of the way.
還是蔓延速度強勁到當局能做的最大努力就是轉移災區民眾的大火，完全取決于風勢。
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