WILDFIRE NEWS OF THE DAY - 113009

Leading off wildfire news today, Wildfire NOTD reader Caroline Brown of the Sierra Madre Fire Safe Council sent along an important announcement:

The Sierra Madre Fire Safe Council will host a program on Earthquake Preparation presented by Margaret Vinci of Southern California Earthquake Center, December 7 at 7 P.M., 232 W. Sierra Madre Blvd. The Earthquake Center at Cal Tech co-ordinated this year's state-wide Great Shake Out after spearheading Los Angeles Counties Shake Out last year. Refreshments will be served and the public is invited to celebrate Sierra Madre Fire Safe Council's fourth year and learn of other current projects: Fire Watch, CERT--Community Emergency Response Team--training sign-up for 2010, and the Emergency AM Radio Station. Please call 355-0741 for information.

Caroline Brown, Public Relations, Sierra Madre Fire Safe Council

Although roads through burn areas of the Angeles National Forest have been reopened, fear of debris flows during rainy periods may close them again (1); but Santa Ana winds howled through Southern California carrying ash from the Station Fire into foothill communities (2). A convicted burglar who confessed to starting a 2003 wildfire now claims that he was coerced into making his confession (3); while Sony is partnering with some young inventors whose Forest Guard camera system will be deployed in the vicinity of Lake Tahoe to protect against future wildfires (4). A New York Times article explores the contribution forests in the Pacific Northwest can make to offsetting carbon emissions elsewhere in the country(5); followed by an article in which the financial benefits of being a forest owner are explored (6). German researchers have come up with some alarming statistics about how much CO2 is being released by peat fires in the tropics (7). A forest fire near Nelson on New Zealand's South Island destroyed a home (8). Aborigines in Australia are teaching the world a thing or two about how to cut bushfires and, correspondingly, CO2 emissions (9); while a wildlife rehabilitator in Victoria has laid plans for a bushfire bunker for their small charges (10). Despite numerous communications failures on Black Saturday, telecommunications companies stated that they will not be making changes to their systems (11); Fujitsu Australia will be providing a $1 million customer service system to first responders in Victoria to help with telephone response (12); and final testing of the national bushfire warning system was undertaken in Victoria last week in anticipation of a formal launch this week (13). A community in Victoria to which a bushfire warning siren was donated found themselves unable to find the funding to support installation and care of the system (14); and the tragedy of two campers trapped by the Black Saturday bushfires was recounted at the Royal Bushfire Commission hearings (15). Victoria's premier has asked that residents of that state observe a moment of silence on February 7, the first anniversary of Black Saturday (16). Going beyond the usual debris burning warnings, firefighters in Queensland are also cautioning residents about the hazards of power tools sparking bushfires (17); followed by a summary of bushfires in Queensland (18). A road in New South Wales was closed by firefighters as a bushfire closed in on the area (19); but Rural Fire Service personnel plan to take advantage of a cooling trend in the weather to extinguish as many bushfires as possible across the state (20); and in a sign of the times, six bushfire PhD scholarships are being offered by the University of Sydney (21). Defense attorneys will claim their client was mentally incompetent when he lit a bushfire in South Australia's Adelaide Hills in March (22); but a Western Australia teenager who thought that burning his car was a cheap way of disposing of it may instead end up spending a number of years behind bars as an arsonist (23). And finally, although designed more for structure fires than wildfires, new technology could also allow wild land firefighters to keep track of each other in smoky conditions and rough terrain (24).

(1) Roads Closed After Station Fire Reopen

(2) Winds blow clouds of ash from S. Calif. mountains

(3) Man denies setting 2003 S. California wildfire

(4) Children's Forest Fire Detection System Deployed by Sony Europe!

(5) Protecting the Forests, and Hoping for Payback

(6) Buying Woodland for Fun and Profit

(7) Peat Fires Drive Temperatures Up: Burning Rainforests Release Huge Amounts of Greenhouse Gases

(8) Huge fire claims home

(9) Australian wildfire scheme said model to cut CO2

(10) Wildlife needs wildfire shelter

(11) Telco says it's ready for the next Black Saturday

(12) Victoria installs CRM system to lift bushfire defence

(13) National bushfire warning system undergoes final tests as inquiry told lives still at risk from CFA management failure

(14) Fire warning muted in Sassafras

(15) Campers tried to flee wall of flames

(16) Victoria marks Black Saturday a year on

(17) Bushfire damager

(18) Water bombing planes fight Esk bushfire

(19) Firies close Bungawalbin road

(20) NSW firies take advantage of cool change

(21) Six bushfire science scholarships on offer

(22) Accused pleads over hills bushfire

(23) WA teenager charged over Henley Brook bushfire

(24) Technology closing in on better locator for trapped firefighters