WILDFIRE NEWS OF THE DAY - 111011

The ongoing debate over the effectiveness of aerial fire retardant is revisited in our first article today (1); while California's Board of Forestry and Fire Protection pushed through a controversial $150 fee for homeowners living on 31 million acres of State Responsibility Areas (2). Having just suffered through a summer of fire, officials of Houston, Texas, fear the possibility of urban wildfires (3); but students from Bay Area Christian School assisted wildfire survivors in Bastrop County (4); the next article profiling the Community Foundation of Abilene, a nonprofit that has awarded more than $4 million to volunteer fire departments in Texas to help them prepare for wildfires (5). A former Minnesota smoke jumper comments on the errors made fighting the huge Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness fire this past summer (6); while, in Missouri, the Washington Urban Forestry Council is considering controlled burns to deal with invasive vines (7); but firefighters had to scale new heights to battle a wildfire above West Clarendon, Vermont (8). Firefighters extinguished five of six wildfires burning in Russia's Far East (9); while methods for dealing with increasingly frequent veld fires in the African nation of Namibia are discussed in the next article (10); even as wildland firefighters on the Pacific island of Guam are getting some much-needed apparatus, courtesy of US Forest Service's Wild Land Fire Program (11). Heading to Australia, the Victorian Fire Services commissioner is warning homeowners of the deadly danger bushfires pose to those seeking shelter in all the wrong places (12); but a Melbourne man accused of setting a Black Saturday bushfire who is free on bail faces severe restrictions to his movements during periods of high fire danger (13); while bushfire plans have been unveiled by Country Fire Authority officials for nearly 2 dozen communities on the east side of Melbourne (14); and despite bushfires, wildlife in Wilsons Promontory National Park is thriving (15). A spate of hot weather has sparked numerous bushfires in Queensland (16). Firefighters in northern New South Wales reported nine bushfires yesterday (17); the current heat wave prompting officials to issue bushfire warnings to several communities (18). Bushfires Council NT met in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, yesterday to discuss problems encountered fighting bushfires which blazed across 150,000 km² (19). And finally, Hawaiian firefighters from Honolulu Fire Department faced an explosive situation when several rockets were discovered as they were extinguishing a wildfire!

(1) Retardant’s Effectiveness Comes Under Fire

(2) Firefighting: Forestry Board Approves Higher Fee

(3) Urban wildfire possible? Houston officials prepare for threat

(4) Bay Area Christian School helps wildfire victims in Bastrop

(5) Community Foundation of Abilene urges people to donate to volunteer firefighter fund

(6) Letter of the Day (Nov. 10): BWCA fire

(7) Urban Forestry Group Planning Projects Along Riverfront Trail

(8) Firefighters battle wildfire off Walker Mtn. Road in Clarendon

(9) Firefighters still battle forest fires in Russia’s Far East

(10) Veld fires and how to prevent them

(11) Talafofo Fire Station Gets Much Needed Fire Truck From USDA Forestry Service

(12) Fighting fire with a blunt warning: it's deadly

(13) Accused Black Saturday arsonist bailed

(14) CFA adopts new fire plans for Yarra Valley and the Dandenongs

(15) Taking the pulse of the Prom

(16) Hot weather fuels bushfires around state

(17) Bushfires keep teams busy

(18) Stark warning ahead of bushfire season

(19) Authorities weren't prepared for NT bushfires

(20) Five military rockets discovered at scene of Makakilo wildfire