WILDFIRE NEWS OF THE DAY - 012911

We lead off today with the first article in my series at Firehouse.com on Night Vision Goggles (NVG), which enable night attack of wildfires (1); while the next article provides some comments from air-tanker pilots and civilians on the ground at Hemet-Ryan Air Attack Base in Riverside, California, over the region's quiet fire season in 2010 (2). A series of Community Wildfire Protection Plan meetings for Calaveras County, California, are scheduled for early February (3); but rezoning of areas around Jackson County, Oregon, could cost thousands of homeowners heavy fines if a wildfire breaks out on their land (4). Wildfire contractors interested in working with Arizona's Prescott National Forest will have an opportunity to speak with US Forest Service representatives next week (5); while Colorado's Woodland Park Planning Commission is striving to produce a Firewise community near Colorado Springs (6). Although wildfire conditions are high across Oklahoma at the moment, a new storm system moving in the first of the week may bring much-needed precipitation to dampen it (7); something which can probably come none too soon for firefighters in Cleveland County, where several wildfires were reported yesterday (8). Numerous wildfires were reported in Collin County, Texas, yesterday (9); as were some others in Shackelford County (10). A Montana Department of Natural Resources Cessna 180 wildfire suppression aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff from Helena Regional Airport during a training exercise this past week (11); while residents of Lake County, Florida, were told not to panic when they saw smoke from a 4,000-acre controlled burn (12). Of the $392 million donated to help Australia's Black Saturday survivors, a whopping $102.9 million remains unspent (13). And finally, instead of using a ladder to get a cat out of a tree, a Mississippi firefighter had to rescue a pileated woodpecker a la Tarzan!

(1) Aerial Firefighting with Night Vision Goggles – Part 1


(2) Hemet: It's finally safe to mention light fire season

(3) Meetings set for wildfire planning

(4) Residents Worry over New Fire Zones

(5) Meetings Feb. 1-3 help wildfire contractors

(6) Report urges wildfire prevention education

(7) Oklahoma road crews prepare for possible winter storm next week

(8) Firefighters Battle Grass Fires

(9) Grass fires slam county: Fire crews, marshals hit with four huge fires in one afternoon

(10) Grass fire burns about 185 acres near Albany

(11) DNRC plane crashes in Helena, no injuries

(12) See smoke? It's coming from massive controlled burn in Lake County

(13) Black Saturday donations still unspent

(14) Eudora firefighter follows a cue from Tarzan; frees imperiled woodpecker