WILDFIRE NEWS OF THE DAY - 120711

In an era when aerial fire retardant is under fire for being harmful to the environment, GelTech Solutions, the company which produces the firefighting gel FireIce, is touting its environmentally-friendly fire fighting products (1); but as the United Nations International Year of Forests draws to a close, the next article takes a look back at the importance of forests in the United States, where 62% of the timber is privately owned (2); while the impact of forest fire fighting on beetle-killed trees across the US is touched on by the next article (3); and with invasive species costing the US economy an estimated $100 billion per year, US Forest Service is gearing up to reduce their impact on national forests (4). Despite cold temperatures, the National Weather Service continues to forecast Red Flag conditions for Southern California due to Santa Ana winds occurring over the next few days (5); even as San Diego County supervisors rolled out a new emergency website which combined three previous websites into one (6). Wildfires in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas added to NOAA's billion dollar disasters in 2011, the list exceeding all the major disasters of the 1980s combined (7). Harris County will become the largest county in Texas to have implemented a Community Wildfire Protection Plan at a ceremony in Houston on December 12th (8); even as Austin considers fire code changes to better protect rebuilt homes from wildfires (9); the next article breaking down where $32 million in FEMA aid went to assist Texans impacted by wildfires this year (10). An Australian scientist from Melbourne, Victoria, plans to talk about relationship between land use and fire intensity in light of his studies of the Black Saturday bushfires in Bermagui on Friday (11); while a public-private partnership in Victoria has yielded the Bushfire Connect website, which combines warnings from social media and SMS with official data to keep people up-to-date on bushfire activity during an emergency (12). Expecting hotter weather this summer, fire officials in South Australia are gearing up for the inevitable bushfires (13). Two schools in Western Australia feel that they are prepared for the bushfire season (14); but with the bushfires finally extinguished, the residents of Margaret River took time to thank firefighters for saving their homes with a barbecue (15). And finally, firefighters in Tampa, Florida, used to dealing with emergencies outside of their station, have one inside: an infestation of bed bugs!

(1) GelTech Solutions (OTC:GLTC) Hitting A Growth Stage With Ramp Up Of Global Distribution

(2) Jay Farrell: Ecologically, economically vital forests disappearing

(3) An Alarming Look at How Forest Firefighting May Be Harming Trees

(4) Forest Service draws line against invasive species

(5) Despite the cold, conditions still ripe for wildfires

(6) County Unveils Revamped Emergency Website

(7) Billion-Dollar Weather Disasters Smashes US Record

(8) Harris County to sign community wildfire plan with Texas Forest Service

(9) Wildfires spark need for code changes

(10) FEMA reports $32 million in TX wildfire aid

(11) Bermagui Forest Forum to look at logging and fire risk

(12) SMS and Facebook are bushfire aids too

(13) SA forests brace for fires this summer

(14) Local schools ready for fire

(15) Community says thank you

(16) Firefighters battle own emergency: bedbugs in their station