Wildfires and other fire incidents

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California fires may have killed hundreds of giant sequoias
Source: NPR-AP

LOS ANGELES — Northern California wildfires may have killed hundreds of giant sequoias as they swept through groves of the majestic monarchs in the Sierra Nevada, an official said Wednesday.

"It's heartbreaking," said Christy Brigham, head of resource management and science for Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks.

The lightning-caused KNP Complex that erupted on Sept. 9 has burned into 15 giant sequoia groves in the park, Brigham said.

More than 2,000 firefighters were battling the blaze in sometimes treacherous terrain. On Wednesday afternoon, four people working on the fire were injured when a tree fell on them, the National Park Service reported.

Read more: https://www.npr.org/2021/10/08/10443179 ... uoias-fire
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caltrek
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Melting Arctic Sea Ice May Strengthen Western Wildfires
by Rosana Hughes
October 26, 2021

https://www.courthousenews.com/melting- ... wildfires/

Extract:
(Courthouse News) — Declining sea ice in the Arctic may be contributing to increased wildfires in the western United States, demonstrating the effects of climate change on extreme weather events and indicating the potential for more and larger wildfires in the area, according to a new study.

Devastating wildfires along the West Coast have exploded in recent years, with five of California’s 10 largest wildfires happening just last year, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Nearly 4.2 million acres burned, leading to 30 deaths and nearly 10,500 structures damaged or destroyed.

Other western states, including Oregon, Washington and Colorado, were also hit hard.

To investigate the relationship between those two factors, Yufei Zou and Hailong Wang of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington, and their team combined data on wildfires, sea ice concentrations and weather conditions over the past 40 years and conducted model simulations.

Researchers identified a link between declining sea ice concentrations in the Arctic between July and October and an increased chance of large wildfires in the West during the following September to December, according to the study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.
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Brazil scientists test frozen jaguar semen to help species
https://phys.org/news/2021-10-brazil-sc ... semen.html
by Diane Jeantet and Tatiana Pollastri

Brazilian and American scientists on Thursday tranquilized a wild-born female jaguar now living in a protected area in Sao Paulo state. They're hoping the 110-pound feline named Bianca could make history for the second time in two years.

In 2019, Bianca gave birth to the first jaguar cub ever born from artificial insemination. Now, the 8-year-old could once again advance the cause of preserving her species. That is, if all goes according to plan and she becomes pregnant using semen that is frozen.

Scientists say frozen semen would be easy to transport, and so help ensure genetic diversity of jaguars whose populations are increasingly fragmented by habitat destruction, according to Lindsey Vansandt, a theriogenologist—a specialist in veterinary reproductive medicine—at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden.

"The population sort of becomes smaller and smaller, and then you get inbreeding which has lots of bad consequences," Vansandt told The Associated Press moments after performing the procedure on an unconscious Bianca atop a surgery table.

"If we can take sperm from one male and inseminate a female from another location, we can keep their gene flow moving and keep the population more healthy," Vansandt said.

Wildlife experts from the Cincinnati Zoo, the Federal University of Mato Grosso and the environmental organization Mata Ciliar have for years developed their insemination program for the Western Hemisphere's largest feline. They work with individuals rescued from habitat loss in the Amazon rainforest, Cerrado savanna and Pantanal wetlands, all of which have suffered a surge of deforestation and fires in recent years.
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What Biden’s Infrastructure Bill Means for Wildfire Management
by Kylie Mohr
November 19, 2021

https://www.hcn.org/articles/north-wild ... management

Introduction:
(High Country News) Zack Bashoor was 19 years old when he joined the U.S. Forest Service in northwestern Montana to fight wildfires. At the time, Bashoor saw firefighting as his career, but after three summers of running chainsaws, digging trenches around blazes and covering structures in protective wrap, he left to become a resource forester at a lumber mill. Many of his peers left firefighting, too, citing the industry’s toxic workforce culture and low compensation for a physically demanding job with a risk of injury or occasionally, death. “There’s this conundrum where a lot of brilliant young people come in and they eventually end up leaving,” Bashoor said. “They find something better to do that isn’t as dangerous and pays a little more money. There were very limited paths to permanent employment.”

But that might be changing, thanks to President Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill, which will raise wages for wildland firefighters and make some positions year-round. The $1.2 trillion legislation, which was signed into law by Biden Monday, includes $3.3 billion for wildfire management. While wildfire is a natural — and necessary — part of a healthy ecosystem, the more severe megafires of recent years are becoming increasingly common and destructive — fueled in part by climate change, as well as by fire suppression. In addition to improving incentives for wildland firefighters, the legislation will work to make forests more resilient to fire and curb its damaging effects by allocating $500 million each to thinning projects, planning and conducting prescribed fires, developing and improving fuel breaks where fires can be stopped or lulled, and mapping and defending at-risk communities. It also funds projects such as fire science research, real-time monitoring equipment and restoration treatments on federal and tribal land with a “very high” wildfire potential.
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Boulder County fire is most destructive in state history after burning at least 500 structures
Source: KUSA
COLORADO, USA — Thursday’s Marshall Fire is now the most destructive wildfire in Colorado’s history.

More than 500 homes and other structures have been destroyed, according to Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle.

Pelle said all 370 homes were destroyed in the Sagamore subdivision just west of Superior. About 210 structures might have been destroyed in the Old Town Superior area, he said. Several businesses in the Target shopping complex were also destroyed, along with the Element Hotel, he said.

Pelle said an unknown number of homes between Superior and Marshall have also been destroyed.
Read more: https://www.9news.com/article/news/loca ... cbec423928
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Late-December Wildfires Ravage Colorado
by Jake Johnson
December 31, 2021

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/ ... e-colorado

Introduction:
(Common Dreams) Tens of thousands of Coloradans were forced to flee their homes Thursday as two fast-moving wildfires—whipped up by wind gusts reaching 110 mph—tore through communities just outside of Denver, engulfing entire neighborhoods in flames and destroying hundreds of buildings.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has declared a state of emergency to help aid the disaster response as officials characterized the late-December fire event as among the worst in the state's history.

"None of this is normal," said Colorado state Rep. Leslie Herod (D-8). "We are not OK."

Experts said the combination of months of unusually dry conditions, warm winter temperatures, and ferocious winds set the stage for the devastating blazes, which meteorologist Eric Holthaus viewed as further evidence that "we are in a climate emergency."

The Colorado branch of the Sunrise Movement agreed, writing on social media that the fires were "fueled by the climate crisis." A growing body of evidence has detailed the extent to which human-caused climate change is driving more frequent and intense wildfires in the U.S. and across the globe.
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So what solution is left? Well, I have one proposal, and like so many ideas that spring from my mind, it is just as logical as it is crazy-sounding: We use thousands of teams of goats and robots to roam through America’s forests to destroy excess wood and plants. I like it because it fuses something natural and prehistoric (animal grazing) with something futuristic.
https://www.militantfuturist.com/how-go ... ning-down/
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Officials: Nearly 1K structures destroyed in Colorado fire
Source: AP

By BRITTANY PETERSON and EUGENE GARCIA

SUPERIOR, Colo. (AP) — A Colorado official says nearly 1,000 homes and other structures were destroyed, hundreds more were damaged, and three people are missing after a wildfire charred numerous neighborhoods in a suburban area at the base of the Rocky Mountains.

Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle also said Saturday that investigators are still trying to find the cause of the wind-whipped blaze that erupted Thursday and blackened entire neighborhoods in the area located between Denver and Boulder.

Pelle said utility officials found no downed power lines around where the fire broke out. He said authorities were pursuing a number of tips and had executed a search warrant at “one particular location.” He declined to give details.

A sheriff’s official who declined to provide his name confirmed that one property was under investigation in Boulder County’s Marshall Mesa area, a region of open grassland about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) west of the hard-hit town of Superior. A National Guard Humvee blocked access to the property, which was only one of several under investigation, the official said.



Read more: https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-bu ... c615580d6e
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PG&E power lines sparked last year’s massive wildfire, which exploded to become the second-largest in California history

By Katherine Blunt and Jim Carlton
https://twitter.com/KatherineBlunt
katherine.blunt@wsj.com
https://twitter.com/jimcarltonsf
Jim.Carlton@wsj.com
Updated Jan. 5, 2022 12:26 am ET

California investigators have concluded that PG&E Corp. power lines ignited a wildfire in the Sierra Nevada foothills last summer that exploded to become the second-largest in state history. ... Officials with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, said in a statement late Tuesday that the fire started after a tree came into contact with the company’s electrical distribution lines in the forested Feather River Canyon. Cal Fire officials said they forwarded their investigative report to the district attorney’s office in Butte County, where the fire started.

The Dixie Fire, which ignited on July 13, grew to consume nearly a million acres across five counties and blackened swaths of scenic forest including much of Lassen Volcanic National Park. It destroyed more than 1,300 structures, including the small town of Greenville, and left one person dead. ... Butte County officials weren’t immediately available for comment.

PG&E had already acknowledged its power lines likely sparked the fire, and in November it disclosed in securities filings that it may face at least $1.15 billion in related liability costs. It said late Tuesday: “Regardless of today’s finding, we will continue to be tenacious in our efforts to stop fire ignitions from our equipment and to ensure that everyone and everything is always safe.”

Shortly after the Dixie Fire started, PG&E Chief Executive Patti Poppe announced a plan to bury 10,000 miles of distribution lines, reversing an earlier stance by the company that doing so would be prohibitively expensive. PG&E has since solicited information from engineering and construction firms and formed an undergrounding council to help formulate the plan.

The Dixie Fire ignited in the vicinity of the Camp Fire, which killed 84 people and destroyed the town of Paradise in November 2018. It was the deadliest fire in California history.
{snip}

Read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/california ... 1641357672
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