Giant smoke clouds rise above largest US wildfire in Oregon

Time-lapse footage shows gigantic columns of smoke rising above the Bootleg Fire in Oregon, the largest of dozens of climate-change-fuelled wildfires burning across the US.

The inferno has already torched an area larger than New York City, destroyed at least 20 homes and threatened 2,000 buildings. Erratic winds have caused the fire to spread rapidly, hampering firefighters’ battle against the blaze.

“Smoke from fires in the Western U.S. and Canada has blanketed the continent,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tweeted alongside satellite imagery. “Fuelled by extreme heat and drought, more than one million acres of land have burned in the US.”