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September 25, 2008
Risk, Challenge, and Choice on the Wildland Urban Interface
Santa Barbara Independent
There is nothing like a wildfire roaring downhill, threatening to burn homes and forcing thousands of people to evacuate in a panic, to illustrate the dilemma Santa Barbarans face every day: We love living right on the edge of one of the world’s most scenic backdrops, but the privilege brings with it the potential for catastrophic disaster most any time the weather turns hot and the wind blows dry.
Funding bill to help pay for summer's wildfire fight
The Salinas Californian
A government funding bill passed by the House of Representatives on Wednesday provides $775 million to the U.S. Forest Service for the wildfires that devastated California this summer.
"This emergency spending will help compensate the Forest Service for funds it gave California for firefighting activities," said U.S. Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel. "More importantly for our near-future, it also provides vital money to help prevent landslides in affected areas."
September 24, 2008
Top forest official defends fire policy
Trinity Journal
Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey talks with Kathy Rose about her timberlands that by PHIL NELSON were scorched during Forest Service burning operations in the Corral Bottom area.
September 22, 2008
Opinion – Maclean: Fire-line mistakes can lead to prosecution
Record Searchlight
Behind daily headlines about bigger and more costly wildland fires, the firefighting community has been sweating out the issue of criminal liability for serious mistakes made on the fire line.
It's not just a firefighter issue: The public has a stake in how well firefighters protect lives, property and forest values. Firefighters who know they could be sent to jail for what's later determined to be a mistake may be less aggressive in attacking a fire, and that could prove more dangerous than hitting the fire hard from the outset.
Phelan man invents water reservoirs for firefighting
Daily Press
PHELAN — Forget taking it easy in retirement.
Keril Keiser of Phelan is using his golden years to make wildfire-ravaged California a little safer for us all.
“If I couldn’t build something, I would die today,” Keiser said. “To me, this is fun.”
Keiser is the founder, inventor, marketer and engineer for Aqua Express. He’s patented designs for mobile, elevated water reservoirs and helicopter dip tanks, which are used to get water to remote wildland fire sites as quickly and easily as possible.
September 20, 2008
Ranger: Willow fire is a beneficial one
Standard Journal
ISLAND PARK - Since July 14, when lightning ignited it, the Willow fire has been allowed to burn in the Centennials about 12 miles southwest of Henry's Lake near the border of Idaho and Montana.
Ashton-Island Park District Ranger Adrienne Keller said the fire, managed as a wildland fire use fire, has been a great tool for her agency, while it has, at times, tried the patience of the people who live and recreate near it.
September 19, 2008
Managed fires benefit resources
The Spectrum & Daily News
CEDAR CITY - The Dixie National Forest is managing four fires for resource benefit: Forsyth Ridge (on the Pine Valley Ranger District), Fife Ridge (on the Cedar City Ranger District), Straight Canyon (on the Powell Ranger District), and Pine (on the Escalante Ranger District).
September 16, 2008
California firefighter dies from injuries
San Jose Mercury News
HAPPY CAMP, Calif.—A 77-year-old contract firefighter has died from injuries he suffered while battling a blaze in a Northern California forest last month.
September 14, 2008
Guest Opinion: Gunbarrel fire will make forest healthier
Billings Gazette
CODY, Wyo. - After more than a month of blackened skies and reddened eyes, a remarkable story has emerged from the Shoshone National Forest's Gunbarrel fire since late-summer snows doused the last embers over Labor Day weekend.
Rather than point angry fingers of blame and demand policy changes, Cody area residents, visitors and business owners generally took the 67,141-acre fire in stride. Lodge owners along the North Fork of the Shoshone River and their guests were remarkably patient, most of them recognizing even as they worried about vital summer revenues and long-planned summer vacations that nature was due for a wholesale cleansing of the North Absaroka Wilderness Area's beetle-killed trees.
September 12, 2008
National News: Mistakes Fighting Fires Can Lead to Prosecution
TriState Observer
PAONIA, CO - Behind daily headlines about bigger and more costly wildland fires, the firefighting community has been sweating out the issue of criminal liability for serious mistakes made on the fire line.
It's not just a firefighter issue: The public has a stake in how well firefighters protect lives, property and forest values. Firefighters who know they could be sent to jail for what's later determined to be a mistake may be less aggressive in attacking a fire, and that could prove more dangerous than hitting the fire hard from the outset.
September 10, 2008
Supes demand fire cleanup:
Forest Service repair policies are criticized
Trinity Journal
Shasta-Trinity National Forest representatives were on the hot seat last week when they attended the Board of Supervisors meeting here to discuss the agency's progress in repairing damage caused by fire-suppression activities for many weeks after the June 20 lightning storm.
September 4, 2008
Report: ID Wildfire Management Gets Kudos
Public News Service
Boise, ID – New strategies for fighting wildfires in Idaho are paying off. A new report from the Idaho Conservation League says land managers are no longer ordering that all fires be battled, but instead are allowing some to burn, as long as they don't endanger people or property.
Timothy Ingalsbee, with Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology, says that strategy allows fire to play its natural ecological role, while saving money.
September 3, 2008
Engine fire led to plane crash
Reno Gazette-Journal
A jet engine fire engulfed the wing of an air tanker moments after takeoff, sending the plane rolling into the ground at Reno Stead Airport and killing all three members of the aerial firefighting crew, a federal investigator said Tuesday.
Firefighting aircraft at risk
Sierra Sun
The safety of a fleet of nearly 800 firefighting aircraft, many of them aging, converted warplanes, has raised controversy for years as the number of tragic air accidents mount.
The fleet suffered another fatal accident Monday when an air tanker crashed on takeoff Monday in Reno causing the death of the three people onboard.September 2, 2008
27 deaths in air tanker crashes since 1991
San Jose Mercury News
Following is a list of fatal crashes involving airtankers that either currently were on contract or recently had been on contract for the U.S. Forest Service fighting fires at the time of the crash.
Red ink cramps Forest Service
California Fires Burn Local Funds
Flathead Beacon
A year after its budget was stretched by an intense fire season, Montana’s Department of Natural Resources and Conservation is enjoying the respite – and less red ink – of a summer with few big blazes. In sharp contrast, the U.S. Forest Service has watched its budget dwindle as the cost of fighting large fires in California and elsewhere has forced cuts across the board, including in the Northern Region and the Flathead National Forest.
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