| Fire News - June 2008
To read the full article, click on the link to be redirected to the news site. June 30, 2008 The U.S. Forest Service did not meet its own deadline to have 252 fully staffed fire engines available statewide by June 22, leaving Inland forests potentially shorthanded going into the summer. As of Monday, more than a week after that target date, the agency remained 29 engines short of that goal, or almost 12 percent, spokesman John Heil said. He could provide no explanation. "We're not prepared to get into that now," Heil said, noting that the agency was busy battling hundreds of fires in California. Military helps fight fires With the Basin Complex Fire just eight miles south of Carmel Highlands, military aircraft have been brought in to fight the blaze and an evacuation advisory has been issued to about 1,500 residents of the Palo Colorado Canyon area in Big Sur. "We're strongly suggesting people take the evacuation advisory seriously," said Tina Rose, spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service. "The fire is moving fast, and there's only one road in and out of the canyon." The Basin Complex Fire has grown to more than 35,286 acres and is only 3 percent contained, but officials say they are starting to get the resources they need to attack the blaze. "There are a lot of fires in the state, but the Basin Complex Fire is a huge priority," Rose said. "There is an immediate threat to life and property." The fire has already charred 16 houses and two outbuildings and threatens more than 1,200 additional homes. June 29, 2008 President Bush declared a state of emergency today for California due to wildfires burning in seven counties across the state, including Monterey, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties. With the state of emergency the Federal Emergency Management Agency is authorized to identify, mobilize and provide equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency. All emergency protective measures will be 75 percent provided by federal funding, according to the agency.
June 28, 2008 A committee charged with reshaping wildfire protection in San Diego County is trying to agree on a handful of recommendations, but the group is splintering and running out of time. June 27, 2008 As a staggering number of fires burn through California, many people are already asking the question of what can be done to lessen the impact of these annual outbreaks. "While for many it's too late to take preventative measures this summer, the truth is that there are short and long-range solutions that communities can start focusing on now," said Rich Fairbanks, a forest and fire specialist for The Wilderness Society - a nonprofit organization that is working in collaboration with local governments, fire departments, land managers and other partners to make sure communities will be safe over the long term. "Homeowners can fortify the defensible space between their homes and forests, and communities can push for better zoning and regulations that protect people and property." WILDFIRE DUTY: Maryland DNR specialists dispatched to California Maryland personnel with special training in wildfire firefighting left Friday for a federal park near Redding, Calif., where a timber and brush fire threatens communication towers, power lines, park cabins and historic buildings, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources said. It may burn all summer If the two massive fires scorching Los Padres National Forest merge, the conflagration could grow into the largest blaze ever recorded in Monterey County, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman said. On the fire line, women find tough, rewarding career Jodi Fowler had a choice to make in 1998. Move to Arizona to try to land a spot on the Phoenix Suns cheerleading squad, or take a job fighting wildland fires for the Bureau of Land Management. She chose the fires -- ditching the pompons and crowds for a fire-retardant uniform, a hard hat and a half hatchet-half pick took known as a Pulaski. June 26, 2008 A firefighters' blue-ribbon task force created by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2004 — and revived last year after devastating blazes — pleaded with the governor and lawmakers Thursday to "get real" about the growing wildfire threat facing California. EROS Helps Fight Wildfires Some of the country's top wildfire experts are in South Dakota, talking about tactics they need to fight fires that are raging out in California, and an organization here in South Dakota can help. The EROS Data Center just north of Sioux Falls is part of the Department of the Interior and provides satellite images and aerial maps to the federal government. For the past few days, the Wildland Fire Leadership Council has been meeting there to talk about satellite technology and how it can be used to fight wildfires on the ground. As more than one thousand fires burn in California, crews are fighting those fires on the ground and from the air, but government officials are also fighting the flames from space. Washington helicopter, crew headed to California to battle wildfires Gov. Chris Gregoire is sending a Washington National a helicopter and crews to California to help battle wildland fires. June 25, 2008 A fire burning on the Big Sur coast poses so many obstacles for firefighters that some areas will be left to burn as the blaze runs its course. The Bear Basin Fire, which was sparked Saturday by a lightning strike, is in such a remote and rugged area of the Ventana Wilderness that officials say it is impossible and too risky to try to extinguish. "There's not a lot of good options," said Mike Dietrich incident commander for U.S. Forest Service. "Once the fire is established, there's not much you can do." New software gives Payette Rural Fire an edge on fighting wildland fires Payette Rural Fire District resident Greg Frates knows how difficult it can be for emergency services to navigate on rural backroads in emergencies. When the Cherry Gulch fire raged in the hills behind his house in rural Washington County last summer, he directed Bureau of Land Management firefighters to a rural road leading to the fire. In the future, however, finding and gauging the potential impacts of wildland fires in the rural fire district, which services parts of Washington County and over to the Oregon Slope, will be easier because of a new software system Payette Rural Fire is in the process of setting up. Some property owners hiring private crews, leasing copters An unprecedented onslaught of flames continued Tuesday to scour bone-dry wildlands of Mendocino County, forcing state fire commanders to make cold, hard decisions about which of the 106 fires to fight and which to ignore. It was a scene being repeated across Northern California as overmatched fire crews were confronted for a second day by more than 800 lightning-caused blazes. At the state command post in Ukiah, the decisions were straightforward: Attack the fires that threaten people and homes, worry about the others in the coming days -- or weeks. As a result, some desperate Mendocino County property owners Tuesday turned to hiring private firefighting crews and leasing helicopters to help fight fires on their own land. June 24, 2008 Nearly all of Montana's wildland fire crews - Hot Shots included - have been sent to California or are in the process of being sent there to fight wildfires. Cal Fire firefighters work 30 days straight COUNTY - Three major fires in the past month have left fire resources stretched thin and some firefighters without a day off in the past 30. State fire officials say a boost in early season manpower and equipment has helped them battle a fit of blazes across Central and Northern California. But the early siege, including fires in areas that rarely see them - like Santa Cruz County - is straining state and local firefighting resources and spurring concern about how firefighters and their gear will hold up during a drawn-out fire season. June 21, 2008 The fast-spreading fire that broke out Friday in Santa Cruz County has put state and federal fire officials on edge as scorching temperatures throughout California threaten to make an already-bad fire season worse. Firefighters had barely dusted off the soot from last week's onslaught of fires when this latest blaze raced through bone-dry grassland near Watsonville, quickly burning 500 acres and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of residents. It is the latest in a series of large, destructive fires to break out in Northern California this year, prompting fears that the amount of firefighting equipment and personnel available in the state might be inadequate. The U.S. Forest Service announced plans Friday to hire additional firefighters to deal with the dangerously incendiary conditions in California. June 19, 2008 County Supervisor Bill Horn envisions a new paradigm for land management in unincorporated areas of San Diego County. He has asked the county to study the feasibility of using "controlled" fire burns in vast swathes of the county to better protect residents from periodic devastating wildfires. Commissioners say nay to rural development: With fires raging and energy costs soaring, they say yea to compact, centralized urban growth Wildfires carry strong messages. So does $4-a-gallon gas. One of those messages, apparently, is that building houses in the unincorporated areas of Butte County, far from urban services and jobs, has got to stop. Anxiety Grows in West Over Firefighting Efforts As fire season arrives in the West, there are growing doubts about the region’s ability to attack the kind of sweeping blazes that devastated parts of California last year. Tracy Jarman, right, the San Diego fire chief, said residents would have to face the reality that some homes built on the fringes of wild lands could not be saved in a big fire. The cost of fuel in fire trucks, a scramble to hire new firefighters and new budget constraints have sowed anxiety as a persistent drought worsens in California and elsewhere, even as heavy rains cause flooding in other parts of the country. June 18, 2008 Late one afternoon a week ago, four firefighters battling the Indians Fire in Los Padres National Forest became trapped in a burnover - a sudden, swirling blowup of flame that officials likened to a cyclone. The force of the fire storm snapped the limbs from oak trees and threw up rocks the size of golf balls, an internal report on the incident said. The crew of Forest Service Engine 71 saw no way out, even though firefighters typically keep two escape routes in mind when working near fire lines. But sudden winds in dry weather can change all that in an instant. When the nightmare ended, one crew member was flown to a hospital burn unit in Santa Clara County. The others were treated locally before they were sent to a burn center in Fresno. They're all expected to recover from their injuries. Wildfires not unusual in South: Pocosin fire's size makes it trouble The size of the wildfire burning in and around the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge may be atypical, but statistics show that its occurrence is anything but. There were 7,000 wildfires in North Carolina in 2007, according to the National Interagency Fire Center, and they burned more than 54,000 acres. As of Sunday, the wildfire in eastern North Carolina had burned more than 41,000 acres, with costs to fight it soaring past $2.6 million. June 16, 2008 The size of the wildfire burning in and around the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge may be atypical, but statistics show that its occurrence is anything but. There were 7,000 wildfires in North Carolina in 2007, according to the National Interagency Fire Center, and they burned more than 54,000 acres. As of Sunday, the wildfire in eastern North Carolina had burned more than 41,000 acres, with costs to fight it soaring past $2.6 million. Also known as the Evans Road wildfire, it is about 40 percent contained, but thick smoke is still causing visibility problems near the blaze, causing the National Weather Service to post an advisory cautioning people with respiratory ailments to stay indoors. June 14, 2008 Managers of the Flathead National Forest are considering allowing lightning-caused fires to burn this summer if the conditions are right. While many wildfires will be fought, others can provide "a valuable tool for land managers," said Steve Brady, Swan Lake district ranger for the Flathead National Forest. "Decisions to use naturally ignited fire as a tool for resource management objectives are made incident by incident, and only in certain conditions," he said. June 11, 2008 Roughly a third of California's fleet of federal fire engines is currently unavailable due to staffing shortages, according to figures supplied by a group that represents U.S. Forest Service crews. June 10, 2008 Foresters looking to fight fire with fire have started looking beyond the boundaries of designated wilderness areas, and this summer will apply a sort of “let it burn” policy to public lands throughout northwest Montana. June 6, 2008 A growing number of people are moving away from what Bill Eastwood termed a "period of institutionalized fire suppression," and back towards the idea of using fire as a land-management tool, much as local ranchers did for decades - and Native Americans did for centuries. -------------------- FUSEE is a non-profit organization dedicated to public education on fire ecology and management issues. We believe this news service to be 'Fair Use' of the cited copyrighted material for educational purposes and will advance awareness, understanding, and public discussion of issues relating to firefighter safety, ethical land management, environmental protection, ecological restoration, and other issues in the public interest. |