WILDFIRE NEWS OF THE DAY - 060513
We lead off today with a letter to the editor that faults US Forest Service with public safety fire service nonfeasance for not using air-tankers in the initial attack role on Southern California wildfires (1); while two radio segments from National Public Radio talk about life in Southern California's wildfire country (2)(3); but a Supreme Court hearing of the U.S. Forest Service versus Pacific Rivers Council case, which involves a 2004 proposal to reduce the wildfire risk in 11 national forests in California's Sierra Nevada mountain range may never make it to trial (4). After a particularly rainy month of May, wildfire season is fast approaching in Oregon (5). In Arizona, some fire departments may be reluctant to battle wildfires elsewhere in the state because they have yet to be paid for wildfire expenses from 2012 (6); some video footage from Phoenix showing the DC-10 being prepped to fight wildfires along with Idaho's Snake River Hotshots (7); the DC-10 joining the fray battling New Mexico's 7,400-acre Thompson Ridge Fire (8); a letter to the editor of the Santa Fe New Mexican drawing a distinction between the impact on Southwest vegetation of renewing fires versus the current crop of catastrophic fires (9); officials from the Tonto National Forest showing how to extinguish campfires in a video presentation (10). A member of Colorado US Senator Mark Udall's staff comments on the 100-day work delays posed by air-tanker contract protests lodged with the Government Accountability Office in the next article (11); firefighters announcing 100% containment of a 29-acre wildfire burning in Larimer County (12). A researcher from Utah State University faults climate change and the suppression of wildfires allowing fuel buildup as the two primary causes of the recent catastrophic fires (13); and facing its third year of drought, Texas is bracing for more wildfires (14). Iowa-based Allied Insurance is providing information through their website to homeowners across the country on how to prepare for wildfires (15). Wildfire NOTD subscriber David Cant, Business Development Manager for Australian firefighting gel purveyor BlazeTamer 380, passed along a link posted on YouTube by Wildfire NOTD subscriber Ed Kleiman, Corporate Wildland Operations Coordinator for Florida-based GelTech Solutions, that shows testimony by USFS Chief Tom Tidwell before the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee in Washington DC (16); the following article providing more details on Chief Tidwell's testimony (17); this at a time when US Forest Service is being forced to eliminate 500 wildland firefighting positions due to sequestration (18); but Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden joined others in faulting the Obama administration for cutting back funds for fire prevention in the 2014 budget (19). The Virginia Department of Forestry plans to train approximately 300 firefighters from seven states on the finer points of wildland firefighting this week (20); a photo spread from Florida's Palm Beach Post displaying some striking fireline photos from wildfires in the West (21). With meteorologists projecting warmer, drier conditions across British Columbia, Canada, wildfires are a concern (22); and after two wildfires in the UK were determined to be human-caused, North Wales Fire and Rescue Service warned campers of the fire danger (23). Elevated temperatures are being faulted for 10 wildfires that have broken out across Hamirpur District in Himachal Pradesh, India, over their summer (24); and at least 5 acres went up in smoke in the island nation of Sri Lanka's Ravana Forest Reserve (25). Bushfires are among the natural disasters which caused Australian telecommunications companies to declare 100 more "mass service disruptions" in 2012 than 2011 (26). A documentary on the 1957 Blue Mountains bushfires was seen by thousands in Katoomba, New South Wales (27); while the Loftus Volunteer Bushfire Brigade has gone high tech (28); businesses and private donors helping a Coonabarabran family business hard hit by the Warrumbungles bushfire (29). A film chronicling the plight of a family and the town of Dunalley, Tasmania, during the January bushfires is up for an award (30). And finally, students from Pennsylvania's Schuylkill Technology Center have a challenge ahead: getting a 1922 antique fire truck running in time for this fall's Tamaqua Heritage Parade!
(1) Powerhouse Fire suppression work unacceptable: Opinion
(2) When It Snows Ash: Life In Wildfire Country
(3) Grist talks wildfire on NPR’s Talk of the Nation
(4) Another case dropping off?
(5) Editorial: After rain delay, Oregon wildfire season is approaching
(6) Some Ariz. fire departments unpaid for 2012 wildfires
(7) Jumbo jet air tanker and hotshots arrive in Valley in anticipation of intense wildfire season
(8) Air tankers join battle of Thompson Ridge blaze now at 7,400 acres
(9) Letters to the editor, June 5, 2013
(10) Help prevent wildfires by learning basic campfire safety
(11) Warplanes to Tankers Delayed by Contested U.S. Contracts
(12) Firefighters contain human-caused fire in Roosevelt forest
(13) Drought, climate change, forest practices elevate Utah’s wildfire risk
(14) High Wildfire Risk, Longer Fire Season Possible This Year
(15) Wildfires Threaten One-Third of U.S. Homes
(16) Senate ENR committee on wildfire
(17) Climate change causing US wildfire season to last longer, Congress told
(18) Forest Service to hire 500 fewer wildfire fighters
(19) Feds urged to fund wildfire prevention
(20) Virginia Forestry hosting firefighter training
(21) The terrible beauty of the western wildfires
(22) Forest fires a concern as B.C. summer forecast to be hotter and drier than usual
(23) Fire service issues gorse and forest fire warning
(24) 10 cases of forest fires reported this summer in Hamirpur
(25) Fire in forest reserve
(26) Australian telcos requested more disaster exemptions in FY 2012
(27) Thousands see Blue Mountains bushfire documentary
(28) Bushfire brigade rolls out effective tech
(29) Generosity in wake of bushfire
(30) Guardian Firestorm film about Tasmanian bushfire in competition
(31) Restoring A Piece Of Firefighting History
We lead off today with a letter to the editor that faults US Forest Service with public safety fire service nonfeasance for not using air-tankers in the initial attack role on Southern California wildfires (1); while two radio segments from National Public Radio talk about life in Southern California's wildfire country (2)(3); but a Supreme Court hearing of the U.S. Forest Service versus Pacific Rivers Council case, which involves a 2004 proposal to reduce the wildfire risk in 11 national forests in California's Sierra Nevada mountain range may never make it to trial (4). After a particularly rainy month of May, wildfire season is fast approaching in Oregon (5). In Arizona, some fire departments may be reluctant to battle wildfires elsewhere in the state because they have yet to be paid for wildfire expenses from 2012 (6); some video footage from Phoenix showing the DC-10 being prepped to fight wildfires along with Idaho's Snake River Hotshots (7); the DC-10 joining the fray battling New Mexico's 7,400-acre Thompson Ridge Fire (8); a letter to the editor of the Santa Fe New Mexican drawing a distinction between the impact on Southwest vegetation of renewing fires versus the current crop of catastrophic fires (9); officials from the Tonto National Forest showing how to extinguish campfires in a video presentation (10). A member of Colorado US Senator Mark Udall's staff comments on the 100-day work delays posed by air-tanker contract protests lodged with the Government Accountability Office in the next article (11); firefighters announcing 100% containment of a 29-acre wildfire burning in Larimer County (12). A researcher from Utah State University faults climate change and the suppression of wildfires allowing fuel buildup as the two primary causes of the recent catastrophic fires (13); and facing its third year of drought, Texas is bracing for more wildfires (14). Iowa-based Allied Insurance is providing information through their website to homeowners across the country on how to prepare for wildfires (15). Wildfire NOTD subscriber David Cant, Business Development Manager for Australian firefighting gel purveyor BlazeTamer 380, passed along a link posted on YouTube by Wildfire NOTD subscriber Ed Kleiman, Corporate Wildland Operations Coordinator for Florida-based GelTech Solutions, that shows testimony by USFS Chief Tom Tidwell before the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee in Washington DC (16); the following article providing more details on Chief Tidwell's testimony (17); this at a time when US Forest Service is being forced to eliminate 500 wildland firefighting positions due to sequestration (18); but Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden joined others in faulting the Obama administration for cutting back funds for fire prevention in the 2014 budget (19). The Virginia Department of Forestry plans to train approximately 300 firefighters from seven states on the finer points of wildland firefighting this week (20); a photo spread from Florida's Palm Beach Post displaying some striking fireline photos from wildfires in the West (21). With meteorologists projecting warmer, drier conditions across British Columbia, Canada, wildfires are a concern (22); and after two wildfires in the UK were determined to be human-caused, North Wales Fire and Rescue Service warned campers of the fire danger (23). Elevated temperatures are being faulted for 10 wildfires that have broken out across Hamirpur District in Himachal Pradesh, India, over their summer (24); and at least 5 acres went up in smoke in the island nation of Sri Lanka's Ravana Forest Reserve (25). Bushfires are among the natural disasters which caused Australian telecommunications companies to declare 100 more "mass service disruptions" in 2012 than 2011 (26). A documentary on the 1957 Blue Mountains bushfires was seen by thousands in Katoomba, New South Wales (27); while the Loftus Volunteer Bushfire Brigade has gone high tech (28); businesses and private donors helping a Coonabarabran family business hard hit by the Warrumbungles bushfire (29). A film chronicling the plight of a family and the town of Dunalley, Tasmania, during the January bushfires is up for an award (30). And finally, students from Pennsylvania's Schuylkill Technology Center have a challenge ahead: getting a 1922 antique fire truck running in time for this fall's Tamaqua Heritage Parade!
(1) Powerhouse Fire suppression work unacceptable: Opinion
(2) When It Snows Ash: Life In Wildfire Country
(3) Grist talks wildfire on NPR’s Talk of the Nation
(4) Another case dropping off?
(5) Editorial: After rain delay, Oregon wildfire season is approaching
(6) Some Ariz. fire departments unpaid for 2012 wildfires
(7) Jumbo jet air tanker and hotshots arrive in Valley in anticipation of intense wildfire season
(8) Air tankers join battle of Thompson Ridge blaze now at 7,400 acres
(9) Letters to the editor, June 5, 2013
(10) Help prevent wildfires by learning basic campfire safety
(11) Warplanes to Tankers Delayed by Contested U.S. Contracts
(12) Firefighters contain human-caused fire in Roosevelt forest
(13) Drought, climate change, forest practices elevate Utah’s wildfire risk
(14) High Wildfire Risk, Longer Fire Season Possible This Year
(15) Wildfires Threaten One-Third of U.S. Homes
(16) Senate ENR committee on wildfire
(17) Climate change causing US wildfire season to last longer, Congress told
(18) Forest Service to hire 500 fewer wildfire fighters
(19) Feds urged to fund wildfire prevention
(20) Virginia Forestry hosting firefighter training
(21) The terrible beauty of the western wildfires
(22) Forest fires a concern as B.C. summer forecast to be hotter and drier than usual
(23) Fire service issues gorse and forest fire warning
(24) 10 cases of forest fires reported this summer in Hamirpur
(25) Fire in forest reserve
(26) Australian telcos requested more disaster exemptions in FY 2012
(27) Thousands see Blue Mountains bushfire documentary
(28) Bushfire brigade rolls out effective tech
(29) Generosity in wake of bushfire
(30) Guardian Firestorm film about Tasmanian bushfire in competition
(31) Restoring A Piece Of Firefighting History
Labels: air-tankers, bushfires, firefighting, forest fires, wildfire news, wildfire news of the day, wildfires
posted by Michael Archer @ 11:06 AM
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