WILDFIRE NEWS OF THE DAY - 112613

In a press release, Wildfire NOTD subscriber Tom Eversole, Executive Director of the American Helicopter Services & Aerial Firefighting Association, voiced his organization's support for the new Fallen Wildland Firefighters Fair Compensation Act, which would provide the same benefits as the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Act to wildland firefighters and air-tanker pilots (1). US Forest Service announced plans to relocate the Zephyr Point Fire Lookout in California's Tahoe National Forest (3); while the next article takes a look at the sometimes byzantine rules US Forest Service will be following to rehabilitate Oregon's fire-ravaged Umpqua National Forest (3). The war of words between the El Paso County Sheriff and the Black Forest Fire Chief continues in Colorado with the Sheriff questioning the Fire Chief's decisions early in the fire (4); but in the meantime, the importance of Firewise programs to Montezuma County is examined by the next article (5); something the resort town of Vail might consider in light of a report prepared by the fire department which shows that 42% of the homes in the community are at high risk for wildfires (6). A New York Times article takes a closer look at the important contribution of inmate firefighters in an era of fire agency cost-cutting (7); but following a 230-acre wildfire in New Jersey's Cheesequake State Park, hikers are being advised to stay off the trails for now (8). Fire crews in North Carolina's Pisgah National Forest have nearly contained a 2,600-acre wildfire that has been burning since November 12th (9); while a new study published by the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Research Station in the Canadian Journal of Forestry Research found that lowering the density of ponderosa pine trees improves the survivability of those stands from disease and wildfires (10). Police have apprehended a teenager who sparked a bushfire in Auckland, New Zealand's, Woodhill Forest at the beginning of the month (11). The Blue Mountains Bushfire Mayoral Relief Fund announced that it had $3 million available for distribution to Australians living in New South Wales impacted by recent bushfires (12); but as temperatures soared in South Australia, total fire bans were imposed for much of the state (13); even as the State Parliament's Natural Resources Committee considered extreme measures to protect people from bushfires (14). A photo spread provides shots from the firelines on a prescribed burn outside of Collie, Western Australia (15). And finally, a forest fire warden in Hampton, New Jersey, had to fight a fire of a different kind this time at a house built in the 1850s!

(1) Aerial Firefighting Industry Welcomes Fallen Wildland Firefighters Fair Compensation Act

(2) U.S. Forest Service plans to relocate historic Tahoe fire lookout

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