WILDFIRE NEWS OF THE DAY - 020911

Firehouse.com sent out an announcement today about their upcoming Firehouse World event in California at the San Diego convention Center from Feb. 26 - Mar. 2, 2011, including an invitation from San Diego Firefighters Local 145 to attend an after-event party at their Fire Museum downtown! (1) The Riverside County Board of Supervisors will be voting on whether to award half the $100,000 reward for turning in convicted arsonist Raymond Lee Oyler who started the Esperanza Fire which killed five US Forest Service firefighters in 2006 (2); followed by a report that chronicle's CAL FIRE's contribution to batting the gas line fire in San Bruno last year (3). A schedule of controlled burns for late winter and early spring in Oregon is provided by the next article (4); while New Mexico's Mescalero Apache Reservation stands ready to help nearby Ruidoso with any wildfires in the vicinity (5); and a wildfire that had been burning in Hidalgo County, Texas, has been brought under control (6). Concerns over the lack of efforts to reduce the wildfire risk in British Columbia, Canada, are voiced in the next article (7). Vietnam's Department of Forest Management warned eight provinces of an extreme wildfire threat, while cautioning seven others that the wildfire threat in their area was elevated (8); but now that Australian firefighters in East Gippsland, Victoria, have taken care of a bushfire that burned in Tostaree State Forest, crews are beginning cleanup operations (9). Western Australia's Fire and Emergency Services Authority (FESA) reported a bushfire caused by a fallen powerline near Wellesley (10); and FESA has mounted an investigation over allegations that bushfire warnings came too late to be helpful for homeowners in the path of a massive bushfire that destroyed dozens of homes outside of Perth (11); even as an engineer claimed that his bushfire warning system would issue a faster alert if only officials would adopt it (12); nevertheless, residents of Perth Hills saluted their firefighters for heroically battling the blazes (13); while police have been questioning an off-duty officer accused of having accidentally started the bushfire (14); with the spokesman for Western Australia's Bushfire Front weighing in on the need for vegetation clearance to prevent disasters like the one that just unfolded in Perth Hills (15). And finally, one New York volunteer fire department that just received a $248,000 FEMA grant will be terminating 'the Terminator'!

(1) Firehouse World

(2) Vote due on $50,000 reward for witness in deadly Esperanza fire

(3) Report highlights San Bruno fire effort

(4) National Forest Managers Plan Early Burn Projects

(5) Mescalero pledges firefighting help

(6) Wildfire mostly under control

(7) Little action on wildfire risk

(8) Provinces receive wildfire alert as drought takes hold

(9) Crews get to work on Tostaree clean up

(10) Fallen powerline sparked Wellesley fire

(11) Investigation to be held over bushfire warnings

(12) South-west WA trials 'faster' bushfire alert

(13) Volunteer firefighting heroes answer the call

(14) Australian police question cop who caused forest fire catastrophe

(15) 'This area is about to explode, it's a disaster waiting to happen'

(16) New truck for West Valley Volunteer Hose Company