WILDFIRE NEWS OF THE DAY - 021510

The fourth installment of Sue Russell's informative series on wildfires focuses on firestarters in our first wildfire article today (1); while a Los Angeles Times editorial wades into the thorny issue of fees for wildfire protection in California (2). A blogger examines SDG&E's push to implement rate increases to offset wildfire lawsuit payouts (3); but rural residents of Santa Barbara County are running into bureaucratic delays as they ask for permission to burn off more vegetation ahead of the fire season (4). An Oregon county has earned a windfall of $750,000 for pre-treatment of vegetation to prevent wildfires (5); and an article from Michigan reports on findings from a Michigan State University Firewise representative that the vast majority of the 8-10,000 wildfires started in that state result from debris burning (6). Another fire in Colombia, this time right outside the capital of Bogota, burned nearly 100 acres before being contained (7). The African nation of Ghana's public education program continues with a sensitization exercise in the Ochie River valley (8); but an Op-Ed piece points to government mismanagement of funds as a more major threat to the Ghana Fire Service (9). A forest reserve in Uganda suffered some losses from a wildfire (10); while another forest fire was threatening Vietnam's Hoang Lien National Park just a day after locals extinguished one there (11). Heading Down Under, controversy is brewing over changes to bushfire danger signs in parts of Victoria (12); even as planning experts from around Australia upbraided the Victorian government for rebuilding towns destroyed by the Black Saturday bushfires before the Royal Bushfire Commission (13). The Department of Sustainability and Environment announced some of the biggest controlled burns ever as mild weather conditions continued across the region (14). Residents of the Victorian town of Flowerdale who suffered losses on Black Saturday are getting some unique donations from artists (15); and the Whittlesea Country Musical Festival is getting back on track after cancellation of last year's show due to bushfires (16). Country Fire Authority explained the mentality of people who stay to defend their property from bushfires to the Royal Bushfire Commission (17); with reaction from a member of the Yarra Ranges Council about the CFA study's findings (18). A bushfire in Western Australia's Millstream-Chichester National Park continued to spread over the weekend (19). And finally, a telephone scam artist in Pennsylvania soliciting donations 'for disabled firefighters' families' got a wrong number: the fire chief!

(1) Catching Arsonists Red-Handed

(2) Fire, flood, quake: Who pays, and how?

(3) Reducing SDG&E Wildfire Liability = Another Stealth Rate Increase?

(4) Backcountry Landowners Want More Power to Prevent Wildfires

(5) Deschutes County Get Money to Fight Fires

(6) County inspection plans upset Grant Township

(7) Fire destroys forest north of Bogota

(8) Fire Service holds sensitization exercise in Mfantseman

(9) OPINION: Fire And The Rawlingses: No Mere Sympathies, Please!

(10) Fire guts sh800m Gulu forest

(11) New fire threatens Lao Cai forest

(12) Time called for fire signs

(13) Marysville should never have been rebuilt, commission told

(14) Controlled burning to begin this week

(15) Art aid for bushfire victims

(16) Festival bounces back after Black Saturday

(17) Bushfire stayers 'macho'

(18) Alarm over Code Red

(19) Bushfire burns through Pilbara national park

(20) Firefighter scam artist makes call to fire chief