WILDFIRE NEWS OF THE DAY - 102313

An ecologist argues against increased logging to reduce the wildfire danger in forests in the West (1). A wildfire survivor from San Diego County, California's, Paradise Fire remembers the loss of her sister 10 years later (2); while the author of a book on the Cedar Fire will have a book signing in Ramona this coming Saturday (3); US Forest Service firefighters quickly snuffing a 1.5-acre wildfire in the Stanislaus National Forest (4); while CAL FIRE snuffed a small blaze in the Santa Cruz Mountains (5). Arizona's Coconino National Forest is conducting controlled burns on over 400 acres in the Upper Beaver Creek Project (6); a resident of Colorado Springs, Colorado, who organized giveaways to wildfire survivors being profiled in the next article (7); but until the fall rains arrive, property owners in parts of Maine are being warned against debris burns (8). Police in Riau, Indonesia, have arrested 29 people in connection with setting wildfires that have cloaked the region in smoke (9). An update on the bushfire situation in New South Wales, Australia, is provided by the next article (10); where some risky strategies paid off (11); and more favorable weather is allowing firefighters to gain the upper hand on bushfires that have raged across the state (12); while a satellite view shows a striking image of smoke plumes emanating from those blazes (13); but Rural Fire Service indicated that the 47,000-hectare fire outside of Lithgow was caused by live artillery practice (14); one mayor praising the efforts of firefighters in the Blue Mountains (15); the following article providing readers with some inside information on bushfires (16); a University of Newcastle mechatronics team expounding on the virtues of “intelligent autonomous vehicles” over bushfires (17); RFS volunteers showing that firefighting is sometimes a family affair (18); the next article telling some uplifting stories from the fires (19); the one which follows taking a look at the primal fear bushfires strike in the hearts of both humans and animals (20); bushfires showing no distinction between threatening common folks and celebrity bowlers (21); while some fact checking is done on the Premier's claim that controlled burns have substantially increased in that state over the past two years (22); the head of the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat drawing fire from Australia's Prime Minister over her bushfire comments (23); while the NSW Premier struck back at landlords trying to gouge evacuees (24). The Emergency Services Manager for the Shire of Augusta-Margaret River, Western Australia, hopes to have every home in the community ready for bushfire season (25). And finally, firefighters from Massachusetts' Plymouth County Technical Rescue Team had a rather large rescue to perform: a horse stuck in a bog!

(1) New Paradigm for Forests that embraces wildfire and beetles

(2) North County woman remembers sister killed in 2003 wildfires

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