Heat, wind and a cruel twist of nature: inside Oregon's nightmarish wildfire season

The state's fire year made history, testing resources to unprecedented extremes as nine people died and 1m acres burned

Kiera Erwin could see the flames. The blaze raging through the Mt Hood national forest had turned the sky orange, the air thick with smoke. It was just after Labor Day and Erwin and her boyfriend, Matthew Britt, had been packing for days, aware that evacuation neared. Now it was here. Preparation made it no less scary.

They had a new baby, Aurora, not yet two months old. No one makes face masks for babies - nothing to protect Aurora from the smoke, or the Covid-19 pandemic they would risk when they fled for town.