WILDFIRE NEWS OF THE DAY - 122110

The US Forest Service is once again offering a Very Large Air-Tanker 'Call When Needed' contract for multiple aircraft with payloads of 10,000 gallons or more covering 2011-2012 (for a copy of the full 122-page proposal in PDF, go to the following link) (1). A welder accidentally started a wildfire in Oklahoma yesterday (2); while the Texas Forest Service is providing suggestions to homeowners on how to cope with wildfires in areas where the danger is extreme right now (3); which is timely, considering that several grass fires have accidentally been sparked in that state recently (4). Extremely dry conditions in Florida are preventing firefighters from conducting much-needed controlled burns (5); this at a time when a half-acre wildfire was reported in St. Augustine (6); and an 11-acre wildfire destroyed an abandoned mobile home in Madison County (7). Despite the clamor from the public for answers on the Carmel Forest fires, the Israeli Knesset's State Control Committee will not conduct an inquiry into the blaze (8); while the former head of Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science's Environmental Sciences and Energy Research Department weighs in on the environmental effects of their recent wildfires (9); and Jewish federations have distributed $2.4 million to people impacted by the fires (10). Firefighters in New Zealand were battling a bushfire that had burned into a timber plantation, the third in that area within the past 24 hours (11); one of the 100 bushfires that have been reported on South Island (12). Professors at Australia's Macquarie University who have examined palaeoenvironmental data from centuries ago disputed current thinking on how bad wildfires have become recently (13); and the Head of Forensic Pathology Services at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine spoke to a rapt audience about details of identifying bodies after the Black Saturday bushfires (14). Another mighty Erickson Air-Crane, the Gypsy Lady, will be stationed in South Australia's Adelaide Hills throughout the summer (15); while several teenagers have been charged with starting bushfires in Western Australia (16); even as firefighters battled a bushfire in Helena National Park east of Karragullen (17). And finally, one of Santa's helpers will have to be promoted, as a Wisconsin Santa Claus, who is also a former firefighter, is hanging up his suit after 43 years on the job!

(1) Very Large Airtanker (VLAT) Contract

(2) Wildfire Flares Up Near Wynnewood

(3) Texas Forest Service issues safety tips for holiday season

(4) Recent Grass Fires in New Braunfels Blamed on Careless Sparks

(5) Drought hinders fire prevention

(6) Wildfire sparked near Treaty Park

(7) Wildfire Destroys Mobile Home in Madison County

(8) Knesset: No state inquiry into fire

(9) The Forests Behind the Fires

(10) Federations to dole out $2.4 million in fire aid

(11) A scrub fire is burning uncontained west of Waimate in South Canterbury

(12) Spate of fires in South Island

(13) Assumptions about importance of modern wildfires wrong, study shows

(14) Guest speaker gives insight into bushfires

(15) Aircrane to be based in SA over summer

(16) Teens charged over bushfires

(17) Bushfire alert for Mt Dale

(18) Firefighter officially hangs up Santa suit