WILDFIRE NEWS OF THE DAY - 120911

Southern California's Los Padres National Forest will be looking for a few good firefighters at a couple of job fairs later this month (1); while an important lesson from Arizona's Wallow Fire can be discerned from the fact that forests thinned by the White Mountain Apache Tribe typically formed the edge of the burn area, preventing the fire from spreading further onto their land (2). Fire officials from several Colorado counties gathered to discuss how to implement Wildlife Mutual Aid Agreements in order to better deal with wildfires collectively (3); and a history professor at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois, discussed the refugee problem created by a massive wildfire that burned 3 million acres across Washington, northern Idaho, and western Montana in 1910 (4). Attendees at a major-league football game in Dallas will have the opportunity to donate to the Wildfire Relief Fund to help volunteer fire departments across Texas with expenses racked up during the epic wildfires this year (5); but as people continue to rebuild homes destroyed by wildfires in the Panhandle, charities like the Salvation Army, which donated $100,000 for wildfire relief this year, have noticed a decided drop in donations (6); and it's probably not going to get better anytime soon, as a professor from the University of North Texas expounds on the likelihood of insurance rates going up as those companies are forced to compensate the claims they pay out to policyholders for wildfire damage (7). The hazards of navigating open water during Minnesota's Pagami Creek Fire is one of the lessons to learn from the US Forest Service report released this past Tuesday (8); while in Canada, officials from the County of Grande Prairie donated a new $350,000 wildland-urban firefighting truck to the town of Beaverlodge, Alberta (9). Fearing that deep-seated hotspots could remain active until winter, firefighters cut back their efforts on a 345-hectare wildfire burning near the North Island settlement of Horeke, New Zealand (10). Following on the heels of the Western Australian Premier saying that people could sue the state for runaway controlled burns that destroyed homes in Margaret River, nearly a quarter of the people who lost homes in that fire are considering doing just that (11); while the Pastoralists and Graziers Association of Western Australia estimates that millions of dollars in damage was done to their grazing lands by nine bushfires which blazed through that state (12); and as with every other natural disaster, con artists are trying to profit from other people's misery (13); but FESA officials fear the worst is yet to come for the Nullarbor Plain (14); and the impact on wildlife is already substantial, as summarized by the Department of Environment and Conservation in the next article (15). As summer approaches, Forestry Tasmania officials worried that the elimination of state forest workers due to budget cuts could have a deleterious effect on bushfire fighting in that state (16). And finally, firefighters from Florida's Brevard County Fire-Rescue have come up with a unique solution to a shortage in apparatus: don't buy brush trucks, build them yourselves!

(1) Forest Service is seeking candidates for firefighter jobs

(2) Experts: Managing tribal forest helped stop Wallow Fire at reservation

(3) County weighs collaboration for firefighting

(4) History Professor Gives Talk on 1910 Fire

(5) Crown Royal® Heroes Project(TM) and Country Music Star Rodney Atkins to Honor Texas Firefighters Before Sunday Night Game in Dallas

(6) Parts of the panhandle continue to rebuild after wildfires

(7) Drought, Heat & Wildfires Driving Up All Insurance Rates

(8) First Report on Minn. Fire Details Risks to Crews

(9) Exchanging hands

(10) Horeke fire may linger until winter

(11) Margaret River fire victims consider legal action

(12) Fires dash farmer's hopes

(13) Police probe fake bushfire claims

(14) The Nullarbor Plain is ripe for a bushfire

(15) South West bushfires pushing animals to extinction

(16) Job losses could heighten fire threat

(17) Don't buy brush trucks - build them