Firebomber Publications Blog

Wildfire News Of The Day (the Firebomber Publications blog) provides comprehensive international wildfire news. Subscribers include over 10,000 personnel from fire agencies, contractors, and government entities on five continents. "BEST NEWSLETTER I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY 32 YEARS IN THE FIRE SERVICE" - San Diego Fire Department Chief Brian Fennessy.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

WILDFIRE NEWS OF THE DAY - 072711

On the technology front, Send Word Now has partnered with the National Interagency Fire Center to provide communications to wildland firefighters on the fireline (1); while Wildfire NOTD subscriber Tony Morris, Communications Director for Wildfire Research Network, sent along a blog posting from Wildfire NOTD subscriber Walt Darran, Safety Committee Chairman for Associated Aerial Firefighters, commenting on the recently-leaked RAND Corporation study on the future of aerial firefighting in the US (2). The wildfire burning on San Diego County's Los Coyotes Indian Reservation is now 55% contained after burning 13,900 acres (3); and arson investigators are looking into a pair of wildfires that burned in Kern County over the weekend (4); while an 83-acre wildfire burning in Calaveras County is now 90% contained (5); but quick response by aircraft and firefighters on the ground crushed an 81-acre wildfire reported by the Sierra Front Interagency Dispatch Center near Alpine yesterday (6). Officials in California's Sequoia National Forest commented on the fact that the 11,411-acre Lion Fire appears to be burning less intensely in areas cleared out by wildfires less than 10 years ago (7); but as that fire reached the park, visitors were complaining about the smoke (8); the next article taking a look at the Alameda County Community Wildfire Protection Plan (9). US Forest Service will be hosting workshops which detail how to get help in recovering from damage caused by Arizona's recent wildfires (10); where the long-term impact of those wildfires, which scorched hundreds of square miles before being contained, is examined by the next article (11); even as US Forest Service conducts debris pile burns in the Williams Ranger District to reduce the wildfire danger (12). Arson is suspected in the case of a wildfire reported in Salt Lake City’s Memory Grove overnight (13); and firefighters in Creek County, Oklahoma, had to battle the heat as well as a wildfire yesterday, forcing for firefighters to seek help for heat exhaustion (14). Authorities in Johnson County, Texas, are on the hunt for a wildfire arsonist (15); and a 1500-acre wildfire burning in Stephens County threatened homes as well as oil infrastructure (16). A 15-acre wildfire has been reported in Montana's Helena National Forest (17); but to clear up a bit of a mix-up in URLs in yesterday's Wildfire NOTD edition, here is the correct link to an invitation from subscriber Kevin Ryan, a Research Forest Ecologist with USFS Missoula Fire Labs, for comments on the future direction of wildland fire management in the US in regards to developing a "Cohesive Wildland Fire Management" strategy (18). Lightning sparked half a dozen wildfires along Florida's Treasure Coast (19). Wildfire NOTD subscriber, Tom Wilson, a former Canadian air-tanker pilot, sent along two articles: the first dealing with a new computer-controlled drop mechanism for the venerable DC-7 (20); the second showing how a Lockheed Electra L-188 has been modified to make more uniform retardant drops from a single tank (21). The British Columbia Forest Service is taking advantage of rainy weather to conduct more firefighter training (22); while in the Mediterranean Basin nearly 2 dozen wildfires were reported in Algeria, along with a pair burning in Portugal (23). As wildfire activity in Russia ramped up again, memories of last summer's catastrophe resurfaced in the population (24); even as Greenpeace Russia claimed that the Russian government is covering up the true extent of wildfire activity across the country (25). Namibia's Earth Observation and Satellite Applications Research and Training Centre will help monitor that southern African nation for wildfires in the future (26); and the World Wildlife Fund documented some 1,960 fires burning in Indonesia's Riau, North Sumatra, West Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan provinces, many of them deliberately set for agricultural purposes (27). In Australia, the arsonist who lit a bushfire in Victoria that took five hours to extinguish in 2007 has been sentenced to three years in jail (28); while former Victoria Police Commissioner Christine Nixon struck back at critics about her performance during the Black Saturday bushfires in her new book, Fair Cop (29); but over two years and $3 million later, Strathewen Primary School, which was badly damaged during the Black Saturday bushfires has finally been completely refurbished (30). One aspect of the Climate Commission report released yesterday details the bushfire danger to New South Wales within a decade (31). And finally, several members of an endangered species of red squirrel whose Arizona habitat was threatened by wildfires has found a new home at the Phoenix Zoo!

(1) Send Word Now Used to Support Fight Against Wildfires Across Several States

(2) An Examination of USFS’s Need for Large Aviation, Rand Corp draft report, comm

(3) Calif. wildfire burns deeper into heavy vegetation

(4) Weekend wildfires under investigation

(5) Firefighters contain 90 percent of Calaveras wildfire

(6) Quick response quashes Alpine wildfire

(7) Sequoia National Forest learning from Lion Fire

(8) Lion Fire reaches Sequoia National Park, smoke impacts visitors

(9) Officials Want You to Help Protect County from Wildfires

(10) Forest Service Hosts Recovery and Restoration Workshops

(11) Wallow Fire impact and more wildfires

(12) Forest Service plans pile burning this week in the Williams Ranger District

(13) Salt Lake firefighters quickly douse Memory Grove blaze

(14) Heat causes problems for firefighters at scene of grass fire in Sapulpa

(15) Johnson County seeks arsonist during record year for wildfires

(16) 1,500-acre wildfire threatens homes in Stephens County

(17) Wildfire in Helena National Forest at 15 acres

(18) A Request for Comments on the Western Regional Portion of the National Wildland Fire Management Cohesive Strategy

(19) Rainfall on Treasure Coast still way short of normal; fire officials warn of lightning igniting brush fires

(20) New plane technology douses fires faster

(21) New Conair technology designed to fight B.C. forest fires

(22) Where there’s rain, there’s firefighting training

(23) EFFIS - Current Situation

(24) Heat And Fire Return To Russia As Questions Linger Over Deaths In 2010

(25) Russia Forest Fires Being Hidden By Local Authorities, Environmentalists Say

(26) Namibia's satellite centre to warn of disaster threats

(27) A Way Through the Forest Fire Haze

(28) Vic arsonist jailed for three years

(29) Nixon says commission looked to blame

(30) New kind of normal for bushfire school

(31) Act now or face disasters: climate report

(32) 4 Mount Graham red squirrels now at Phoenix Zoo

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