Washington continues to battle rampaging wildfires, as thousands of people have been evacuated from several counties to avoid further casualties.
Gov. Jay Inslee said that the extent of the wildfires this year has been devastating to the state, as U.S. Forest Service has fought with more than 100 wild fires this season, according to CNN.
Some 6,500 people were evacuated from Chelan and Okanogan counties, CNN affiliate KIRO reported.
Inslee said the number of acres that burned down so far this year has reached 390,000, an increase of about 56 percent compared to last year's 250,000 acres.
"I want to say this is an unprecedented cataclysm in our state," he said in a news briefing.
Inslee reported on Thursday that 110 buildings had been burned down by the wildfires. The state has deployed more than 3,000 fire personnel and 26 planes and other aerial equipment, according to KIRO News.
Okanogan County Sheriff Frank Rogers said that it was really dangerous for fire personnel because there were instances where there were firestorms in the area.
The battles against the fires continues as residents mourn the three U.S. Forest Service firefighters killed in action on Wednesday, who were identified as Tom Zbyszewski, 20, Andrew Zajac, 26, and Richard Wheeler, 31, according to Fox News. Zbyszewski's parents were also fire personnel.
As to the other three that were injured, two had been allowed to go home while one from Puyallup remained in the hospital, still in critical condition as 60 percent of his body sustained burn injuries.
The deaths occurred at the scenic Methow River valley as the fire fighters tried to report the extent of the wildfires but were caught at a sudden blast that claimed their lives, as previously reported by HNGN.
Richard and Jennifer Zbyszewski are grieving the loss of their only son, according to CBS News.
An incoming junior college student in physics and Chinese, Zbyszewski had been volunteering at the U.S. Forest Service for the past two years. This was his second summer working for the U.S. Forest Service, in his own community.
"Being able to help protect the homes of the people he knew," his mother told CBS. "That was important to him."
