Some 50 firefighters from Southern Oregon and Northern California are heading to Alaska to help battle the blazes which have already burned almost 500,000 acres (1); but thick vegetation in the Las Vegas Valley has Nevada fire authorities on edge (2). A wildfire burning in New Mexico's Jemez Mountains is 35% contained after consuming 2,000 acres (3); while fire officials in Utah are hoping that their heavy winter snows will spare them from a busy fire season (4). Expecting a bad fire season in Arkansas, wildland firefighting kits have been distributed to fire departments in that state by fire officials (5); and although the weather is giving firefighters in Alaska a break, they're working even harder to take advantage of the lull (6). British Columbia, Canada, is also enjoying unseasonably cool weather, allowing firefighters to stand down for a while (7); and Ontario's West Fire Region, which has seen over 15,000 acres burned so far this year, is now reporting a reduction in fire activity (8). Firefighters in the Yukon are hopeful that rainstorms to the south will travel north to help them with their battle against a wildfire near Minto Mine (9); but in the meantime, officials evacuated several dozen mine workers (10). Residents of Reservations in Québec plan to head home today as firefighters continue to grapple with the wildfires that have scorched over 139,000 acres in that province (11). A new study from the University of Exeter which was just published in Science shows that slash-and-burn agriculture being conducted in Brazil's Amazon, which has produced many forest fires, may be negating carbon gains the United Nation's REDD program was trying to produce (12). Wildfires outside of Corinth, Greece, drew the attention of a pair of Super Scoopers, as well as firefighters on the ground (13); but Russia's environmental record is coming under fire by Greenpeace, which cited, among other things, a doubling in acreage destroyed by forest fires in Russia (3.7 million acres in 2009 alone) (14). Heading Down Under, more testimony was heard in the trial of a man accused of setting one of the Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria (15); but even though it's been over 500 days since the Black Saturday bushfires, nearly a third of the donations made to help provide relief to survivors have yet to be distributed (16). And finally, students at Victoria's Swinburne University of Technology won a prestigious award for their above-ground bushfire shelter design!

(1) Southern Oregon firefighters battle Alaska blazes

(2) Thick Brush Offers Scary Possibilities for Wildfire Season

(3) Crews gain 35% containment of Rio Fire

(4) Officials predict heavy snows may dampen summer wildfires

(5) Wildland firefighting kits distributed

(6) Tamer weather gives Interior Alaska firefighters little rest

(7) Cool, wet weather dampens fire threat

(8) Fire risk drops

(9) Rain eases Yukon wildfire risks

(10) Partial evacuation of Minto mine as wildfire grows

(11) Que. forest-fire evacuees expected to go home Friday

(12) Fires in Amazon challenge emission reduction program

(13) Fires near Corinth

(14) Greenpeace decries Russian PM Putin's environmental record over past decade

(15) Car concern adds to mystery of Black Saturday accused

(16) Almost $120 million of Black Saturday donations yet to reach victims

(17) Bushfire shelter wins global award