WILDFIRE NEWS OF THE DAY - 021312

California Public Utilities Commission will probably decide whether to hold a public hearing on San Diego Gas & Electric’s controversial plan to bill ratepayers for wildfire expenses incurred by the utility (1); while fire officials announced that a 300-acre wildfire burning in Arizona's Coronado National Forest is now 60% contained (2). The next article takes a look at how communities across Colorado are trying to cope with the wildfire danger (3); and residents of Amarillo, Texas, will have an opportunity to learn about wildfire safety at two sessions being conducted by fire officials (4). Wildfire NOTD subscriber Tom Eversole, Executive Director of the American Helicopter Services & Aerial Firefighting Association, sent along a press release addressing Montana-based Neptune Aviation's P-2V wing crack problem, with comments by Wildfire NOTD subscriber Dan Snyder, President of Neptune Aviation (5). A 10-acre forest fire was reported Sunday south of Superior, Minnesota (6); while arson investigators believe that a 20-acre wildfire that broke out in Paul Hugo Farm Wildlife Management Area was deliberately set (7). US Forest Service plans to burn 130,000 acres in Louisiana's Kisatchie National Forest to improve habitat for wildlife there (8). US Forest Service will be conducting controlled burns on 600 acres in Alabama's Talladega National Forest (9); and firefighters in St. Clair County feel a wildfire they have been battling for two days was probably arson-caused (10). US Forest Service has brought a 73-acre wildfire burning in North Carolina's Uwharrie National Forest to 70% containment (11); while firefighters in Florida's Jonathan Dickinson State Park will be conducting controlled burns on 56 acres this week (12). An unexpected impact of last year's wildfires in northwestern Ontario was that a Canadian census of First Nation settlements was incomplete (13); the following article providing an update on wildfires burning in Chile (14). Three wildfire articles come from Africa today: government officials in Ghana have appealed to the Wildfire Division of the National Fire Service to redouble their efforts to reduce bushfires in a year in which the harmattans (West African trade winds) are deemed to be especially bad (15); while invasive species and careless wildfires threaten to destroy Rondo Forest Reserve in the Lindi Region in Tanzania (16); and twelve people apparently died in a forest fire in South Sudan's Lakes State (17). Children playing with matches sparked a 10-acre wildfire in the Himalayan nation of Bhutan (18). The next article gives a nod to Victoria, Australia's, volunteer firefighters (19); where the President of the Planning Enforcement Officers Association complained that 17 communities still have no bushfire plan funding (20); while a trio of Leadbeater's possums which were rescued from the Lake Mountain area ravaged by the Black Saturday bushfires have been moved to the Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary (21); but a former Country Fire Authority volunteer claims to have accidentally started one of the Black Saturday bushfires (22). Firefighters continued to grapple with a 13,000-hectare bushfire burning in Western Australia's Babbington State Forest (23); even as the Premier's cabinet was being briefed about Mick Keelty's latest bushfire report on the Margaret River blaze that scorched 1,000 ha last year (24); while shire officials are formulating plans to bring tourism back to the region (25); but after a makeshift drug lab exploded and started a bushfire south of Perth, fire officials pondered how to deal with the problem of drug labs moving into the bush (26). And finally, a long-lost tabby separated from her family by the Bastrop County, Texas, wildfires, has been reunited months later!

(1) Regulators To Delay Decision On SDG&E Uninsured Wildfire Reimbursement

(2) Southern Arizona Wildfire 60 Percent Contained

(3) Communities create healthy forests

(4) First responders plan 2 wildfire safety sessions

(5) Wing Inspections Clear P-2 Airtanker Fleet for Ongoing Aerial Wildfire Deployment

(6) Forest Fire Burns in Field South of Superior

(7) Dry Winter, Hugo Fire Ups Wildfire Worries

(8) Protecting Kisatchie requires 130,000-acre controlled burn

(9) Forest Service to burn 600 acres near Rabbittown

(10) Arson suspected in wildfire in northern St. Clair County

(11) Fire in Uwharries 70 percent contained

(12) Prescribed burns planned for Jonathan Dickinson State Park

(13) Forest fires blocked census on First Nations

(14) Chile fire updates from ONEMI: Some relief for Valparaíso Region

(15) MP advises Ghanaians to take precautions against wild fires during the Harmattan

(16) EA biggest coastal forest under threat

(17) Fire in South Sudan’s Lakes state forest kills 12

(18) Yangtse dzong escapes fire

(19) Meet the Aussies who save lives on the side

(20) Shires lack funds for bushfire plans

(21) Endangered possums taken to wildlife sanctuary

(22) Court told arson accused accidentally started Black Saturday bushfire

(23) Firefighters battle blaze near Northcliffe

(24) Cabinet briefed on Keelty's bushfire report

(25) A campaign to lure tourists to Margaret River

(26) Fears over new drug lab threat

(27) Miraculous reunion between Bastrop cat owners and their pet