WILDFIRE NEWS OF THE DAY - 102613

In California, US Forest Service announced 100% containment of Yosemite National Park's Rim Fire, which scorched 400 mi.², destroying 11 residences, three commercial properties and 98 outbuildings (1); while Wildfire NOTD subscriber Rick Hatton, CEO of 10 Tanker Air Carrier, discussed their move to New Mexico's Albuquerque International Sunport in the next article (2). A 5,000-acre wildfire in Texas' McFaddin Wildlife Refuge has been contained (3); the impact of a 7,100-acre wildfire that swept through Minnesota's Itasca State Park earlier this year being examined by the next article (4); while a wildfire was reported in Connecticut's Sleeping Giant State Park (5). The tough choices facing Australians in the aftermath of the bushfires in New South Wales is the topic of the next article (6); but in the aftermath of those fires, the insurance industry estimated that its losses would be less than for the Queensland floods of 2010-2011 (7); while health officials warned of the health hazard posed by bushfire smoke (8); a fire tornado being blamed for some of the devastation in Springwood (9); but following the report of two drones being flown over bushfires outside of Lithgow, Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority warned that the operators would be fined due to the hazard posed to air-tankers flying over the fire (10); real estate agents in Penrith and Richmond reporting that evacuees are having difficulty finding housing (11); and bushfire survivors may also be denied compensation due to rule changes to the federal government's disaster relief payments program (12); but the Daily Telegraph announced that it would donate one dollar to the Salvation Army for every issue of their paper sold today in order to assist bushfire survivors (13). And finally, a novel solution to the contentious problem of selectively logging timber to reduce the wildfire danger may be solved by one of nature's prime loggers: beavers!

(1) Rim Fire now 100 percent contained

(2) Aviation firefighting company lands in Albuquerque

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