WILDFIRE NEWS OF THE DAY - 040609

With over 220 communities at risk in Arizona, authorities remind home and business owners to make sure they are properly insured against wildfire damage; and the same warning should probably be sent to Colorado property owners, as that state is bracing for a bad fire season. Firefighters in the Texas Panhandle have a 15,000 acre blaze about 50% contained now; but a 70-acre wildfire did some damage to homes along Texas' Gulf Coast; and, as Texas firefighters fought wildfires in various parts of the state, two dozen required treatment for excessive smoke inhalation. Arson investigators suspect someone is setting grass fires outside a Minnesota city; while Michigan Department of Natural Resources officials warned residents of that state that wildfire season is upon them. A wildfire in Virginia also burned more than 100 acres Sunday night. Overseas, rapid response teams are being created in India to help report and track wildfires. While the media focused on bushfires in Australia early this year, it is believed that the unprecedented heat wave that spawned them may have killed more than the bushfires did! Victoria's bushfire warning system's effectiveness was again called into question as the Black Saturday bushfire hearings continue; and residents of a community hard hit by the Black Saturday bushfires are having an impassioned debate over what to do about the trees that make their area a tourist haven. Firefighters recall the harrowing days of fighting the Black Saturday bushfires; but despite promises not to harass people burned out of their homes by the Black Saturday bushfires, at least one utility company is doing just that. Politics is rearing its ugly head in the debate over bushfire relief funds; while the Australian YMCA and the government of Victoria state have teamed up to provide after-school programs to kids affected by the Black Saturday bushfires. Having to rely in some cases on aerial photography of areas closed to outsiders, one insurer in Australia has paid out more than $100 million in claims to homeowners who lost residences in the Black Saturday bushfires.

Homeowners urged to check insurance as wildfire season nears

Wildfire forecast: Long-range modeling suggests dry, hot late summer in Grand County

Winds abate, wildfires closer to containment

Aransas County fire destroys four homes, threatens others

24 Texas firefighters treated for smoke inhalation

North Metro grass fires might be arson

Officials warn of spring wildfire risk

Wildfire scorches Poor Mountain

HP forms 150 rapid response teams to check forest fires

January heatwave 'killed more than Black Saturday fires'

There was no bushfire warning: resident

Don't clear trees, say inferno survivors

Bushfire memories bite deep

Telstra demands payment from Victoria's bushfire victims

Brumby under fire over appeal funds

Free after-school care for bushfire-affected families

RACV releases $124 million for Black Saturday bushfire victims