Wildfires and other fire incidents

weatheriscool
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Wildfires spark evacuations in 3 U.S. states and Canada amid heat wave
Source: Axios

By Rebecca Falconer

The extreme heat wave gripping the Western United States and Canada is spurring wildfires in several U.S. states and British Columbia.

Driving the news: Evacuation orders were issued in California, Oregon, Idaho, and B.C. In Arizona, two firefighters died when their aircraft crashed while responding to a wildfire in Mohave County, per a Bureau of Land Management statement.


Oregon's Bootleg fire was threatening transmission lines that supply California with power after doubling in size to 120 square miles on Saturday.
A huge wildfire in Northern California's Plumas National Forest, known as the Beckwourth Complex, "generated its own lightning," the Los Angeles Times reports.

Read more: https://www.axios.com/wildfires-evacuat ... 92cae.html
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California wildfire advances as heat wave blankets US West
Source: AP

By DAISY NGUYEN
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Firefighters struggled to contain an exploding Northern California wildfire under blazing temperatures as another heat wave hits the U.S. West this weekend, prompting an excessive heat warning for inland and desert areas.

On Friday, Death Valley National Park in California recorded a staggering high of 130 degrees Fahrenheit (54 Celsius) and could reach the same high on Saturday. If verified, the 130-degree reading would be the hottest high recorded there since July 1913, when the same Furnace Creek desert area hit 134 F (57 C), considered the highest reliably measured temperature on Earth.

The Beckwourth Complex — two lightning-caused fires burning 45 miles (72 kilometers) north of Lake Tahoe — showed no sign of slowing its rush northeast from the Sierra Nevada forest region after doubling in size between Friday and Saturday.

California’s northern mountain areas already have seen several large fires that have destroyed more than a dozen homes. Although there are no confirmed reports of building damage, the fire prompted evacuation orders or warnings for roughly 2,800 people along with the closure of nearly 200 square miles (518 square kilometers) of Plumas National Forest.




Read more: https://apnews.com/article/fires-enviro ... f89533e0ea
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Firefighters make progress against big fires in US West
Source: Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Dozens of wildfires burned across the torrid U.S. West on Monday, but fire agencies reported some progress in corralling the flames and forecasters predicted a gradual decrease in extreme temperatures.

The fires have forced evacuations in numerous areas with scattered homes and tiny communities where some burned houses and other structures have been observed, but total losses were still being tallied.

The fires erupted as the West was in the grip of the second bout of dangerously high temperatures in just a few weeks. A climate change-fueled megadrought also is making conditions that lead to fire even more dangerous, scientists say.

The National Weather Service said, however, that the heat wave appeared to have peaked in many areas, and excessive-heat warnings were largely expected to expire by Monday night or Tuesday.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/oregon-calif ... 0c55aaccea
weatheriscool
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Wildfires threaten homes, land across 10 Western states
Source: AP

By JOHN ANTCZAK and CHRISTOPHER WEBER
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Wildfires that torched homes and forced thousands to evacuate burned across 10 parched Western states on Tuesday, and the largest, in Oregon, threatened California’s power supply.

Nearly 60 wildfires tore through bone-dry timber and brush from Alaska to Wyoming, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Arizona, Idaho and Montana accounted for more than half of the large active fires.

The fires erupted as the West was in the grip of the second bout of dangerously high temperatures in just a few weeks. A climate change-fueled megadrought also is contributing to conditions that make fires even more dangerous, scientists say.

The National Weather Service says the heat wave appeared to have peaked in many areas, and excessive-heat warnings were largely expected to expire by Tuesday. However, they continued into Tuesday night in some California deserts, and many areas were still expected to see high in the 80s and 90s.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/business-sci ... 52d6e8b5c4
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caltrek
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Western Wildfires Rage Across 12 States
by Eric Ortiz and Conor Murray
July 15, 2021

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/we ... t-n1274101

Extract:
(NBC) Emblematic of the difficulties firefighters are facing across the American West, crews are battling a rapidly growing blaze in Northern California, just 10 miles from the town of Paradise, where the collective trauma of the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in the state's history remains palpable nearly three years later.

Since it began Wednesday morning, the Dixie Fire in Butte County has scorched about 5,000 acres of brush and timber near the steep terrain of the Feather River Canyon, and was 7 percent contained, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said Friday.

While fire officials said the flames were sweeping away from populated areas and into the forests of neighboring Plumas County, residents who lived through the Camp Fire of 2018, which killed 85 people and burned more than 153,000 acres, remained on edge. Butte County officials issued an evacuation warning for the small communities of Pulga and East Concow, east of Paradise.

Elsewhere in the West, the Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon, the largest wildfire burning in the United States, has torched an area bigger than New York City and destroyed at least 20 homes, fire officials said. It remained about 7 percent contained as of Friday morning.
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Unstable weather will continue to fuel huge Oregon blaze
Source: AP

By GILLIAN FLACCUS

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Dry, unstable and windy conditions will keep fueling a massive wildfire in southern Oregon, forecasters said, as the largely uncontained blaze grows by miles each day.

The Bootleg Fire was just one of numerous wildfires burning across the U.S. West.

Crews had to flee the fire lines of the Oregon blaze late Thursday after a dangerous “fire cloud” started to collapse, threatening them with strong downdrafts and flying embers. An initial review Friday showed the Bootleg Fire destroyed 67 homes and 117 outbuildings overnight in one county. Authorities were still counting the losses in a second county where the flames are surging up to 4 miles (6 kilometers) a day.

The conflagration has forced 2,000 people to evacuate and is threatening 5,000 buildings, including homes and smaller structures in a rural area just north of the California border, fire spokeswoman Holly Krake said. Active flames are surging along 200 miles (322 kilometers) of the fire’s perimeter, she said, and it’s expected to merge with a smaller, but equally explosive fire by nightfall.




Read more: https://apnews.com/article/science-envi ... db8f709b87
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California fire prompts evacuations; Oregon blaze balloons
Source: AP

By DAISY NGUYEN and GILLIAN FLACCUS
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A rapidly growing wildfire south of Lake Tahoe forced the evacuation of a mountain town and the cancellation of an extreme bike ride through the Sierra Nevada, leaving thousands of riders and spectators stranded Saturday and rushing to flee the area.

The Tamarack Fire, which was sparked by lightning on July 4, exploded overnight to about 10 square miles (26 square kilometers) and was burning six miles (10 kilometers) south of Markleeville, a small town close to the California-Nevada state line. It has destroyed at least 3 structures, authorities said. A notice posted on the 103-mile (165-kilometer) Death Ride’s website said several communities in the area had been evacuated and ordered all riders to also evacuate immediately.

Kelli Pennington and her family were camping near the town Friday so her husband could participate in his ninth ride when they were told to pack up and leave. They had been watching smoke develop over the course of the day, but were caught off guard by the fire’s quick spread.

“It happened so fast,” Pennington said. “We left our tents, hammock and some foods, but we got most of our things, shoved our two kids in the car and left.”


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/science-envi ... db8f709b87
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caltrek
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What’s in Wildfire Smoke? A Toxicologist Explains the Health Risks

July 15, 2021

https://theconversation.com/whats-in-wi ... sks-164597

Introduction:
(The Conversation) Something unusual happened this year in Idaho. Fire and health officials began issuing warnings about the health risks of wildfire smoke several weeks earlier than normal. With almost the entire U.S. West in drought, all signs pointed to a long, dangerous fire season ahead.

Smoke is now turning the sky hazy across a large swath of the country as dozens of large fires burn, and a lot of people are wondering what’s in the air they’re breathing.

As an environmental toxicologist, I study the effects of wildfire smoke and how they differ from other sources of air pollution. We know that breathing wildfire smoke can be harmful. Less clear is what the worsening wildfire landscape will mean for public health in the future, but research is raising red flags.

In parts of the West, wildfire smoke now makes up nearly half the air pollution measured annually. A new study by the California Air Resources Board found another threat: high levels of lead and other metals turned up in smoke from the 2018 Camp Fire, which destroyed the town of Paradise. The findings suggest smoke from fires that reach communities could be even more dangerous than originally thought because of the building materials that burn.

Here’s a closer look at what makes up wildfire smoke and what you can do to protect yourself and your family.
Image
NOAA’s smoke forecast based on where fires were burning on July 15, 2021.
NOAA
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