WILDFIRE NEWS OF THE DAY - 090112

Our first article today takes a look at the toll wildfires have taken this year on firefighters, currently totaling 12 deaths (1). An update on wildfires in Northern California is provided by the next article (2); where, with 500,000 acres already up in smoke, fire officials are cautioning residents about the continued risk of wildfires (3); but a CAL FIRE firefighter probably feels he needs combat pay after being threatened by the owner of a marijuana patch in Mendocino County (4); while firefighting operations at Ukiah Air Attack Base are profiled by the next article (5). A pair of wildfires outside of Yakima, Washington, have burned over 16,000 acres between them (6). In Colorado, the all-out attack on the 130-acre Roach Fire, burning in Larimer County, underscores US Forest Service's new approach to fighting wildfires (7); even as residents of that state have to endure breathing smoke from wildfires in neighboring states (8); hot, dry conditions prompting US Forest Service to impose fire restrictions on the Roosevelt National Forest (9); but after much fanfare over a forthcoming report on the Waldo Canyon Fire, USFS has canceled a press conference that had been scheduled for September 12th (10); in the meantime, Boulder County fire officials are sharing what they learned battling the Fourmile Canyon Fire with their neighbors (11). An NBC News segment discusses wildfire activity across Montana, where three new fires started Friday (12); even as a wildfire from neighboring Idaho ventured into that state (13); helicopters doing what they could to bring it to bay (14); Musselshell County Volunteer Fire Department being profiled in the next article (15). The grim situation in Oklahoma, where wildfires have raged across the state, is provided by the next article (16); but residents of Creek County will be able to find out how to get $31,400 from FEMA at a meeting next week (17). The northwestern Nebraska town of Whitney was evacuated due to a wildfire in Sheridan County (18); burning across the border onto South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation later in the day (19). Strike teams from Connecticut's Department of Energy and Environmental Protection have returned from battling wildfires in Montana (20); while firefighters in an Upstate New York community are getting some heat from residents while enforcing a burn ban in backyards (21). Ontario, Canada's, Ministry of Natural Resources provides an update on wildfires in that province in the next item (22). In Southern Europe, wildfires were reported in Spain, Greece, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania, and Turkey, as well as the North African nation of Algeria (23); firefighters finally gaining the upper hand on a wildfire burning in Spain's Costa del Sol, allowing residents and tourists to return (24). And finally, we've all heard about wildfire smoke affecting wine grapes, but a brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado, is worried about what wildfire ash in the water will do to their beer!

(1) Raging Fire Season Highlights Human Cost of Firefighting

(2) Mendocino Forest fire still growing; Chips, Ponderosa fires contained

(3) State remains at high risk of wildfire; caution urged

(4) Covelo area firefighter threatened near marijuana garden

(5) Ukiah: Air Attack Base at Ukiah airport fighting fire, heat

(6) 2 new wildfires near Yakima, Wash.

(7) Roach Fire attack an indicator Forest Service hesitant to let nature take its course

(8) Area wildfires make for hazy Colorado skies

(9) U.S. Forest Service imposes fire restrictions

(10) No news coming on Waldo fire after all, Forest Service says

(11) Boulder County passes on lessons of Fourmile Fire

(12) Fires, dry summer turn Montana into scorched, 'very brown landscape'

(13) Wildfire starts west of Hamilton; West Fork residents notified Idaho fire on way

(14) Helicopters continue to work on Sawtooth Fire

(15) Volunteer Firefighters of Musselshell County

(16) Drought and wildfires compound Oklahoma's woes

(17) Sunday: Meeting set to advise wildfire victims getting checks

(18) Wildfires near Chadron as winds plague firefighters

(19) Wildfire in northwest Nebraska grows into SD

(20) Connecticut firefighters return from Montana

(21) Massena firefighters encounter burn ban issues

(22) Five new wildfires reported in the region

(23) EFFIS - Current Situation

(24) Wildfire under control near Spain's Marbella

(25) 'Wildfire Beer': New Belgium Supports Burn Restoration Efforts to Save Beer