WILDFIRE NEWS OF THE DAY - 022013

As Firehouse World continues in San Diego, California, drones and military assets for firefighting in that county are a hot topic (1); while a wildfire in Arizona's Prescott National Forest has been contained after burning about 100 acres (2). Neptune Aviation is conducting training ops in New Mexico to prepare their P-2V air-tankers for fire season (3); but the Idaho Forest Group, which represents private foresters in that state, is concerned that federal lawsuits for sparking wildfires could be deleterious to their businesses (4). The next article takes a look at Colorado's Western Slope Emergency Fire Fund (5); Larimer County fire officials preparing for the upcoming fire season as the drought continues (6); but shooters using illegal tracer bullets are suspected of starting two blazes on the Pawnee National Grassland (7). The Boy Scouts of America want volunteers to help them replant their Griffith League Scout Ranch in Bastrop County, Texas, which was devastated by wildfires in 2011 (8). Wildfire NOTD subscriber Chris Mehl, Communications Director at Montana-based Headwaters Economics, sent along a new study that shows that with 84% of privately owned lands near national forests remaining undeveloped, new building in these areas will increase future firefighting costs for U.S. taxpayers by billions of dollars (9); while firefighters in Jacksonville, Florida, continued to monitor a wildfire along St. Johns Bluff Road (10). Two wildfires on the Caribbean island of the Dominican Republic are threatening towns in the Central Mountain region (11); even as scientists at the World Agroforestry Center in Nairobi, Kenya, are studying the best time to set Africa's savannas ablaze for ecological purposes (12). Camp John Hay, on the outskirts of Baguio City, Philippines, is getting some additional fire lanes to reduce the danger of wildfires (13); while aircraft with monsoon buckets are assisting fire crews on the ground battling a wind-driven bushfire outside of Wellington, New Zealand, that has blazed across 40 to 50 ha (14). Heading to Australia, a man has been arrested in regards to a bushfire on Melbourne, Victoria's, outskirts that destroyed 2,040 hectares (15); even as livestock owners count the cost from that blaze (16); but smoke from the bushfires is making for some unhelpful air in nearby South Australia (17). Western Australia's Department of Fire and Emergency Services will be withholding a report on a fatal bushfire outside of Albany last year until a coronial investigation is conducted (18); meanwhile, residents of Southampton continued to lament the damage done by recent bushfires (19). And finally, one lucky cat was revived by firefighters who rescued her from an apartment blaze in Glendale, California, minus one of her nine lives!

(1) Drones, Military Bases Are New Firefighting Tools

(2) Official: Wildfire south of Prescott 'all but out'

(3) In our skies, training and proficiency flights through Friday

(4) Forest companies in Idaho lobby for their protections against federal wildfire lawsuits

(5) Summit County again signs on to wildfire ‘insurance'

(6) Larimer County bracing for the worst

(7) Use of tracer bullets blamed for two fires started Sunday on the Pawnee National Grassland

(8) Come help Boy Scouts replant their camp in county

(9) As Wildland-Urban Interface Develops, Wildfire Costs Will Soar

(10) Firefighters monitoring St. Johns Bluff Road fire

(11) Two major forest fires rage out of control near Central Mountain towns

(12) Fighting Fire with Fire

(13) More fire lanes in Camp John Hay in the works

(14) Firefighters to battle Wellington fire for days

(15) CFA, residents in public meeting about bushfire survival after Donnybrook blaze came to Epping

(16) Livestock lost in bushfire

(17) Vic bushfire smoke prompts SA health alert

(18) No release yet of report into fatal bushfire

(19) Southampton hit hard by bushfires

(20) Cat revived by firefighters recovering in oxygen chamber