米西部山火事の爪痕、銃を手に家財守る市民も

【エスタカーダＡＦＰ＝時事】米西部を襲った山火事で、オレゴン州ポートランド南東のエスタカーダ中心部は濃い煙に覆われた。避難指示が解除されると、まだ悪臭が残る中自宅に戻り、強盗を防ぐためパトロールする市民の姿が見られた。（写真は米オレゴン州エスタカーダのトレーラーハウスに戻ったマージ・ワイアットさん）
　マット・ワッツさんは、半自動小銃を手に、腰には拳銃を着け自宅の警備にあたる。略奪を防ごうというのだ。
　「無線からは、略奪犯と放火犯のことしか聞こえてこなかった。家に火が回る恐れがないと思ったので、自ら警備して守ることにした」とワッツさんは語る。
　数日にわたり、オレゴン州の山火事は急進左派の放火によるものだとするうわさが広まった。米連邦捜査局（ＦＢＩ）ポートランド支局は、捜査したが事実でないことが分かったと明らかにしている。
　しかしジェームズ・スミスさん（２９）は、強盗は現実のもので、先週８日から１２日の間に約１万５０００ドル（約１６０万円）相当の家財が盗まれたと語った。
　ジェームズさんは、近所の人々と協力している。「お互いの家を見守るため、時間をずらして外に出ている。だがそれ以外の時間帯は、防犯カメラに頼るしかなかった」と、ジェームズさんは犯行の様子が映った画像を指しながら言った。

■焼け落ちたトレーラーハウス
　焼け落ちたトレーラーハウスを見つめ、マージ・ワイアットさん（７０）は涙をこらえながら「大したことない。前に進まないと」と言った。
　エスタカーダでトレーラーハウス暮らしをしていたワイアットさんは、同州で大規模な火事が発生した時、５０キロほど避難した。
　ワイアットさんのトレーラーハウスは、道路そばの緑あふれる丘にある。同じ並びの家はすべて焼き尽くされたが、わずか１０メートル先の家は無傷で残ったという。
　まだ丘から煙が上がる中、ワイアットさんは夫のマルセリーノ・マセダさんと共にトレーラーハウスに戻った。焼け残ったものなら何であれ、拾うつもりだった。
　しかし、灰の中にはほとんど何も残っていなかった。見つかったのは、部分的に溶けた時計やすすけたブレスレット、指輪などだ。
　かつて介護人として働いていたワイアットさんは、少なくとも誰もけがをしなかったことはうれしいが、もう戻って来たくはない、と話した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/09/16-12:18）

This is just stuff. We're gonna move on from it, says Margi Wyatt, holding back tears as she stares at her burned-out mobile home destroyed by one of the fires raging through the US state of Oregon.
The 70-year-old fled 30 miles (50 kilometers) from her home to Estacada in Portland's southeast as the huge and still-uncontained Riverside Fire raced through.
The blaze devastated the mobile home site, located on a wooded hill next to a road. All the properties in Wyatt's row were destroyed -- but homes just ten yards (ten meters) away were left unscathed.
It is one of scores of infernos ravaging that have burnt through a record 5 million acres (2 million hectares) and left at least 27 people dead.
With smoke still rising from the hill, she and her husband Marcelino Maceda have come back to sift through the remains and pick up anything that may have escaped the flames.
But there's little left in the ashes. Among the belongings they find is a partially melted watch, a blackened bracelet and a ring.
The police just told us to grab our things and go, Wyatt said as the flames neared. I gathered what I could in 20 minutes -- cash, important papers, jewellery.
Everything else, she says, is in the blackened remains of her home, which they moved into just two years ago.
But Wyatt -- a retired caregiver -- said she was glad that at least no-one was hurt, but adds: I don't want to come back. These are plastic houses. Our next move is a stick house.
- Guns and robberies -
Luckier residents moved back in as soon as the evacuation order was lifted, and much of the site was occupied again on Saturday.
Six miles to the north, a dense pall of smoke smothered the centre of Estacada. Some of the city's 3,500 inhabitants have returned despite the acrid air and are patrolling in cars to prevent robberies.
Matt Watts, semi-automatic rifle in hand and pistol in his belt, is standing watch at his property to keep potential pillagers at bay.
I hear nothing but looters and arsons on the radio (scanner), I did not feel in fear of my house catching fire so I decided to hang around and protect it, Watts says.
I hope to be a deterrent for somebody that means harm.
He says he has heard shots at night and seen cars with licence plates from other states, which make him suspicious.
For days rumours have spread that radical leftists have been lighting fires in Oregon -- false information that was debunked by the local branch of the FBI.
But James, 29, says the robberies are a reality -- and that he has lost about $15,000 worth of property, stolen from his workshop between Tuesday and Saturday.
We had our Dune racer stolen. I've had a whole bunch of construction tools stolen. My motorcycle, the most recent thing we found out today, my motorcycle's gone out of the shop. Yeah, just a lot of different tools really.
He co-ordinates with his neighbours and they come out at different times just to keep a watch on each other's houses but outside of that we just had to monitor our cameras, James says, pointing to images of the robbers.