WILDFIRE NEWS OF THE DAY - 032813

Air-tanker companies across the US are preparing for wildfire season, as a press release with quotes from wildfire NOTD subscriber Dan Snyder, President of Neptune Aviation, and Tom Eversole, Executive Director of American Helicopter Services & Aerial Firefighting Association, shows (1). As the April 7th deadline for closing the control tower at Ramona Airport approaches, various officials in San Diego County, California, are protesting the FAA's decision (2); but a volunteer firefighter is being charged with setting a small wildfire in San Mateo County in 2011 (3). Gasification of wood chips is allowing a Whidbey Island, Washington, family to use trees too small to be sold commercially for electricity instead (4); while a video segment from Arizona shows over 200 firefighters from multiple agencies training for wildfire season (5). The federal Housing and Urban Development Department allocated $5 million to help communities in Texas recover from damage done by wildfires (6); while the Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service made $1.6 million available to 35 counties impacted by wildfires and the ongoing drought (7). An editorial from Custer County, South Dakota, touches on preventing wildfires in their area (8); but a firefighter from the New Jersey Forest Fire Service was struck and killed by a vehicle while participating in a controlled burn at Hunterdon County's Round Valley Reservoir (9). The Carolina Forest Fire Victim Fund received a $5,000 check to help people who suffered losses in that wildfire, which destroyed over 100 condominiums in Horry County, South Carolina (10); and in addition to setting a pair of controlled burns in St. Johns County, Florida Forest Service also reported a small half-acre wildfire in the region (11). Despite the fact there's still snow on the ground, Ontario, Canada's, Ministry of Natural Resources Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services is preparing for wildfire season (12); but the Central American nation of Nicaragua reported that 14 wildfires had scorched 240,000 ha so far during their summer (13). Fire crews from Scotland's Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue have tackled a number of wildfires in tinder dry conditions (14). Forest fires are taking a heavy toll on forest canopy in India's Wada region (15); and in the Philippines, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has deployed more than 2,000 personnel to deal with wildfires (16). Fire crews in Victoria, Australia, are still grappling with a 1,300-hectare bushfire which has destroyed 16 houses and 18 outbuildings (17); even as arson investigators launched a probe into the origins of that suspicious blaze (18). The danger from a 200-hectare bushfire on South Australia's Kangaroo Island that was burning towards the town of Penneshaw has diminished (19). And finally, a firefighter from Mansfield, Ohio, has helped solve a crime mystery just by picking up trash along the roadside!

(1) Aerial Firefighters Are Prepared For Busy Fire Season

(2) Air traffic control tower at the Ramona Airport to close

(3) DA: Ex-firefighter set blazes for kicks

(4) Family converts forest into source of electricity

(5) Arizona firefighters prepare for busy wildfire season

(6) HUD Distributes $5 Million to Assist Texas in Recovering From Past Wildfires

(7) Wildfire, drought assistance available to Nueces County residents

(8) Should we play with fire?

(9) Forest Service firefighter struck and killed near Round Valley Reservoir

(10) Carolina Forest Fire victims receive another donation to relief fund

(11) 2 controlled burns, 1 wildfire in the county

(12) Quiet start to forest fire season

(13) Forest Fires Devastate Nicaragua

(14) Firefighters are battling wildfires in Scotland

(15) Deliberate forest fires, illegal brick kilns threat to Thane district forests

(16) CL ready for forest fires

(17) Victorian bushfire destroys 16 homes

(18) Arson probe launched into raging Victorian bushfire

(19) Fire threat on Kangaroo Island lessens

(20) 12-Year-Old Mystery Partially Solved After Firefighter Found Stolen Purse