WILDFIRE NEWS OF THE DAY - 021810

As Wildfire News Of The Day gets underway, Dr. Lucy Jones, a USGS scientist at Cal Tech, discusses a new debris flow study and its impact on mudslides in Station Fire burn areas (1); even as a new series of storms bears down on Southern California (2). US Forest Service will be conducting controlled burns on the California side of Lake Tahoe (3); but one Idaho community is up in arms over the fire protection district abruptly removing a number of fire trucks from service without notifying residents (4). The Nature Conservancy will oversee a series of prescribed burns on Scotia Barrens at the behest of the Pennsylvania Game Commission (5); while ideal wildfire conditions prevailed across southern Florida, where firefighters battled a 1,000+ acre blaze near a race track (6). The Chinese Weather Modification Department has launched hundreds of rockets into the sky in Hunan Province to help alleviate the drought there (you can read more about this unique Chinese agency here) (7). Government officials in Thailand are warning residents on the southern island of Phuket about the dangers of wildfires (8); but wildfires continue to burn in nearby Malaysia (9); and the island nation of Singapore has suffered dozens of bushfires over the past two weeks (10). Another wildfire broke out in the Philippines, this time on Mt. Asug in Camarines Sur Province (non-Filipino speakers can read the translated article here) (11). Heading Down Under, firefighters in New Zealand battled a blaze in Waipoua Forest that threatened a stand of giant kauri trees (12). Residents of a Western Australia town devastated by a bushfire they suspect was sparked by power lines will press ahead with their lawsuit against the utility, despite a report that leaves the cause of the fire inconclusive (13); while the battle over a housing development in a high-risk bushfire area is spotlighted by an article from South Australia (14). Inadequate fuel reduction increased the damage done by Black Saturday bushfires, according to testimony at the Royal Bushfire Commission hearings (15); but where adequate back-burns were performed, one expert felt that they had a positive impact on the bushfires (16). And finally, one wildlife rescue organization in Victoria demonstrated that ambulances aren't just for human bushfire victims anymore!

(1) Debris flow threat continues - Lucy Jones

(2) Southern California braces for pair of wet, windy storms

(3) Prescribed fires planned for Kings Beach

(4) Heated words heard at Timberlake Fire meeting

(5) Pennsylvania Game Commission Habitat Improvement Project Involves Controlled Burns on SGL 176

(6) Homestead Brush Fire Burns South Of Speedway

(7) Weather Rockets Curb Forest Fire amid SW China Drought

(8) Phuket Wildfire Control

(9) 700 acres forest reserve in Klias destroyed

(10) 71 bush fires in two weeks

(11) Wildfire on Mt. Asug in Iriga City, take 12 hours

(12) Fire burns near giant kauri

(13) Western Power `not to blame for blaze'

(14) CFS in court fight over hills fire risk

(15) No fuel reduction burn at deadly bushfire site: Commission told

(16) Backburns helped quell Black Saturday fires

(17) Ambos for animals