纽约时报 美国西部再度被大火吞没(3)

"Everything's still on fire," said Mike Alexander, 29,

“都还在烧着，”29岁的迈克·亚历山大说，

who has been coming and going since Monday night, when the wildfire surged up the hillside behind his home.

他从周一晚开始就一直在来来回回地跑，当晚，野火沿着他家后面的山坡冲了上去。

Some evacuation warnings eased on Sunday in areas just south of Portland.

周日，波特兰以南地区的部分疏散警告已经有所放松。

But many towns remained unreachable.

但仍有许多城镇的救火工作依然无法开展。

Law enforcement officials set up a hotline on Sunday for people in the incinerated lakeside resort towns of Detroit

周日，执法官员为底特律遭遇火灾的湖边度假小镇及邻近伊丹哈的居民专门开通了一条热线，

and neighboring Idanha to have deputies check on their homes.

让副手们代他们检查自己的家。

For days, fire crews in Aumsville, a little town outside Salem that was untouched by the fire,

最近数日，塞勒姆郊外的小镇奥姆斯维尔尚受到大火影响，

have been heading into the mountains to help other firefighters try to get a handle on the 188,000-acre Beachie Creek¹ fire.

该镇的消防官兵一直在深入山区，帮助其他消防人员控制这场波及面积达18.8万英亩的比奇溪大火。

Firefighters have been running on adrenaline,

消防员们一直在靠肾上腺素支撑着工作，

sleeping in a donated trailer that was dropped in their parking lot, then heading back up into the fire.

累了就在一辆被丢在他们的停车场里的捐赠拖车上睡觉，一睁眼便又要回到大火现场。

"People are prepared, but not for a fire of this magnitude," said Aumsville's fire chief, Roy Hari.

“大家是有准备的，但我们的准备并不足以应付这等规模的火灾，”奥姆斯维尔消防队长罗伊·哈里说。

Most of what has burned in the West has been in remote forests but in Oregon,

西部大部分被烧毁的都是偏远的森林，

entire communities along the I-5, the main north-south interstate highway along the West Coast, have been razed².

但俄勒冈州西海岸主要的南北州际公路I-5沿线的社区整个整个地被夷为了平地。

An ongoing³ concern in California is the number of dead trees in the Sierra Nevada forests,

加利福尼亚州持续关注的一个问题是内华达山脉地区森林中树木的死亡情况，

where a number of the largest blazes are burning.

因为那里的火情最为严峻。

The United States Forest Service has counted 163 million trees killed,

据林业局统计，死亡树木达1.63亿棵，

mostly as a consequence of a prolonged drought that ended in 2017.

大部分死于2017年结束的长期干旱。

President Trump⁴ is scheduled to visit McClellan Park, Calif., on Monday to be briefed on the wildfires.

特朗普总统计划周一访问加利福尼亚州的麦克莱伦公园，听取有关山火的简报。

After weeks of silence on the fires, Mr. Trump acknowledged their severity on Saturday.

对火灾保持了数周的沉默之后，特朗普终于在周六承认了火灾的严重性。

"I spoke⁵ to the folks in Oregon, Washington," he said. "They've never had anything like this."

“我和华盛顿州、俄勒冈州的人谈过了，”他说。“他们从未遭遇过这种级别的火灾。”

In Gates, where dozens of homes burned, Darren Richardson, 55, and his neighbors have become an improvised⁶ fire brigade.

在有数十座房屋被烧毁的盖茨市，55岁的达伦·理查森和他的邻居自发组成了一支临时消防队。

They filled up rain barrels, kiddie pools and small tanks at a nearby fire station

他们将雨桶、儿童游泳池和附近消防站的小水箱全都灌满了水，

and patrolled their streets and backyards to douse⁷ around property lines and try to put out fires burning in tree stumps⁸.

巡逻当地的街道和各家后院，到用地红线周边灭火，努力扑灭树桩燃起的火苗。

"I'm not leaving," Mr. Richardson said this weekend,

“我不会走，”周末正站在自家门口，

dressed in camouflage⁹ and holding a shotgun in his right hand, as he stood outside his home.

穿着迷彩服，右手拿着猎枪的理查森说道。

"I watched the whole town burn down."

“我眼睁睁地看着整个小镇被烧毁了。”

1 creek   

n.小溪，小河，小湾

参考例句：

• He sprang through the creek.他跳过小河。
• People sunbathe in the nude on the rocks above the creek.人们在露出小溪的岩石上裸体晒日光浴。

2 razed   

v.彻底摧毁，将…夷为平地( raze的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The village was razed to the ground . 这座村庄被夷为平地。
• Many villages were razed to the ground. 许多村子被夷为平地。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

4 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 improvised   

a.即席而作的,即兴的

参考例句：

• He improvised a song about the football team's victory. 他即席创作了一首足球队胜利之歌。
• We improvised a tent out of two blankets and some long poles. 我们用两条毛毯和几根长竿搭成一个临时帐蓬。

7 douse   

v.把…浸入水中，用水泼；n.泼洒

参考例句：

• Men came with buckets of water and began to douse the flames.人们提来一桶桶水灭火。
• He doused the flames with a fire extinguisher.他用灭火器把火焰扑灭。

8 stumps   

（被砍下的树的）树桩( stump的名词复数 )； 残肢； （板球三柱门的）柱； 残余部分

参考例句：

• Rocks and stumps supplied the place of chairs at the picnic. 野餐时石头和树桩都充当了椅子。
• If you don't stir your stumps, Tom, you'll be late for school again. 汤姆，如果你不快走，上学又要迟到了。

9 camouflage   

n./v.掩饰，伪装

参考例句：

• The white fur of the polar bear is a natural camouflage.北极熊身上的白色的浓密软毛是一种天然的伪装。
• The animal's markings provide effective camouflage.这种动物身上的斑纹是很有效的伪装。