Firebomber Publications Blog

Wildfire News Of The Day (the Firebomber Publications blog) provides comprehensive international wildfire news. Subscribers include over 10,000 personnel from fire agencies, contractors, and government entities on five continents. "BEST NEWSLETTER I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY 32 YEARS IN THE FIRE SERVICE" - San Diego Fire Department Chief Brian Fennessy.

Friday, August 13, 2010

WILDFIRE NEWS OF THE DAY - 081310

The fire danger index will be moving into very dangerous territory in Southern California's Angeles National Forest on Sunday (1); but hunters will be allowed into portions of the Los Padres National Forest burned by the 90,000 acre La Brea Fire on Saturday (2). Firefighters snuffed a 10-acre wildfire that broke out in Central California on Thursday (3); and US Forest Service Hotshots were among the firefighters that battled a 10-acre wildfire in Larimer County, Colorado, yesterday (4). Although fire officials are letting a wildfire in Utah continue to expand to burn out certain areas, firefighters stand ready to prevent the spread into protected areas (5); while the US Forest Service plans a commemoration of a massive fire a century ago that killed 85 firefighters in Idaho (6). Wildfires resulting from around 2,000 lightning strikes on the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana provided a bit of activity to firefighters yesterday (7); but Nacogdoches, Texas, is hoping that a grant will help them prepare for wildfires (8). A number of wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Oahu drew a sharp response from firefighters (9). Wildfires in British Columbia, Canada, are the topic of the next article (10); where RCMP apprehended a trio of teenagers who they hold responsible for a wildfire in Burnaby (11); but as wildfire activity diminishes in Saskatchewan, firefighters are returning home to Ontario, although nearly 300 remain deployed to British Columbia (12). Wildfires in Cuba have burned thousands of acres and cost an estimated $18 million in losses since the beginning of this year, according to the chief of the Cuban National Ranger Corps (13). Two firefighters were killed battling an arson wildfire in Spain (14); and a video segment recounts the evacuations of villagers from a town in Portugal as wildfires approached (15); two dozen new wildfires having been reported in Portugal, and several more broke out in Italy as well (16). Turkey is packing a transport plane full of firefighting equipment bound for Russia, along with the dispatch of two firefighting helicopters and a team of wildfire specialists (17); yet a fleet of Russian air-tankers, including IL-76TD, MI-26T, MI-8M and BE-200 aircraft, will be dispatched to Serbia next week (18). A pair of US disaster specialists have been dispatched to Russia to size up the fires there and make recommendations to President Obama on what to send next (19); followed by the official State Department announcement (20). Wildfire NOTD subscriber Ty Bonnar, Vice President of Global Operations for Flexible Alternatives, sent along an MSNBC video segment about the wildfires raging in Russia (21); but the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry announced that the wildfires were finally being beaten back (22); while residents of Moscow received a much-needed reprieve from wildfire smoke when a shift in the wind and a rainstorm cleared the air (23); nevertheless, over 4,000 homes have been destroyed, along with about 2 million acres of vegetation, and a nasty environmental secret about the deliberate destruction of a portion of a 'protected' forest has been revealed (24). A photo from the BBC gives some idea of the devastation caused by the Russian wildfires (25). A lightning-sparked wildfire near Sarov's nuclear research facility still threatens the facility (26); where some video footage of a firefighting train and a BE-200 in action was provided by the next item (27). An Op-Ed piece from the Moscow Times faults Prime Minister Putin and the government for the poor response to Russia's wildfires (28); and Wildfire NOTD subscriber Tony Morris, Communications Director for Wildfire Research Network sent along an article about the visit of a US wildfire contractor to Moscow to discuss working with the Russians on wildfire mitigation (for non-Russian readers, the translated article can be read here) (29). The first (undoubtedly not the last) criminal case for someone accused of starting one of Russia's many wildfires is examined by the next article (30); while Kazakhstan has reported wildfire smoke from Russia drifting across their country (31). It has been revealed that important details were left out of Australia's Royal Bushfire Commission report (32); but an article looks to the past for some hint of the future on Victoria's plans to buy back properties in high-risk bushfire areas (33). The new head of the Victorian Bushfires Reconstruction and Recovery Authority will be donating his entire six-figure salary to help bushfire survivors (34). An Op-Ed piece from New South Wales tallies up the costs to Australia of climate change (35); while residents of a Western Australia town devastated by a bushfire now attributed to a power company were outraged that the power company refused to accept blame for the fire (36). And finally, a California high school football team tackled a wildfire at their summer camp near Eldorado National Forest!

(1) Angeles National Forest Fire-Danger Level Shifting To ‘Very High’

(2) La Brea Fire burn areas to be open for hunting season

(3) Vegetation fire breaks out in Lucerne hills

(4) Crews working forest fire in northwest Larimer County

(5) National Forest land fire near Beaver expands to 3,000 acres

(6) Forest Service plans remembrances

(7) Fire crews keep busy on Crow Reservation

(8) Forest Service grant sought for fire prevention plan

(9) Fire crews respond to multiple brush fires in Makaha

(10) Challenging New Wildfire near Houston

(11) Three kids started wildfire in Burnaby, police say

(12) Fire crews returning from Saskatchewan

(13) Thousands of hectares of forest destroyed by fire in Cuba

(14) Spain: 2 firefighters killed battling rural blaze

(15) Villagers rescued from Portuguese wildfire

(16) EFFIS - Current Situation

(17) Turkey to send firefighting equipments to Russia

(18) Serbia - Russian firefighting airtankers to arrive next week

(19) US sending aid to help Russia firefight effort: White House

(20) U.S. Response to Russia's Wildfire Disaster

(21) Wildfires ravage Russia

(22) Russian wildfires shrink by 15,000 hectares in single day

(23) Rain refreshes Moscow, but wildfires still burning

(24) In Russia, fires -- and politicians -- are bringing down forests

(25) Russian wildfires: Rebuilding a village

(26) Wildfire Raging Close to Russia's Top Nuclear Center

(27) Wildfire rages near Russian nuclear plant

(28) Putin’s Vertical Power Disaster

(29) Patent means of fire

(30) Criminal case opened over forest-fire-causing carelessness

(31) Smoke from Russian wildfires reaches Kazakhstan

(32) Bushfires report omits important evidence: QC

(33) Buybacks and tough sells

(34) Bushfire head to donate salary

(35) Climate change will cost us all

(36) Anger as utility denies blame for fire

(37) Cosumnes Oaks football team bands together to beat forest fire

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