Wildfires and other fire incidents

[weatheriscool]

Strong, swirling winds complicate New Mexico wildfire fight
Source: AP

By CEDAR ATTANASIO and SCOTT SONNER

LAS VEGAS, N.M. (AP) — Strong, fast winds complicated work for firefighters in northeast New Mexico on Sunday as they battled two major blazes, though the rural area’s major population center appeared to finally be safe from the worst danger.

“It’s been a challenging day. The winds have picked up; they haven’t let up,” fire spokesperson Todd Abel said Sunday evening.

The rural area’s largest town — Las Vegas, New Mexico, population 13,000 — sits on the eastern edge of the fire area and appeared safe for now thanks to fire lines dug with bulldozers and other preparations over the past week. But the northern and southern edges of the blaze were still proving tricky for firefighters to contain, particularly given winds as fast as 50 miles per hour (80 kilometers per hour), Abel said.

The fire’s perimeter stretched more than 60 miles (96 kilometers) from Las Vegas, New Mexico, on the southeast flank to near Holbrook about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of the Colorado line. The National Interagency Fire Center said early Sunday that more than 20,000 structures remained threatened by the fire, which has destroyed about 300 residences over the last two weeks. The fire center said full containment wasn’t anticipated until the end of July.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-fi ... 72a29c7fd7

[caltrek]

Hundreds of Sonoma Farmworkers May Have Been Exposed to Toxic Smoke During 2020 Wildfires
by Jess Lander
May 22, 2022

Introduction:

(San Francisco Chronicle) Amid a contentious debate over farmworker safety protocols in fire-prone Sonoma County, a report says hundreds of wine industry laborers were sent to work in proximity to a pair of huge 2020 wildfires, leaving them potentially exposed to both flames and toxic smoke.

According to the report by researchers at UC Irvine, at least 290 farmworkers were working within the perimeters of the LNU Lightning Complex and Glass wildfires, while at least 370 others were working within a mile of the perimeters. The researchers also say a lack of oversight and inconsistencies in the Sonoma County system that regulates workers’ access to evacuation zones suggests that there were likely hundreds more workers sent to fire areas that were unaccounted for.

This system, informally known as an ag pass program, is at the center of a months-long farmworker safety debate in Sonoma County. The ag pass program permits workers into wildfire evacuation zones to perform essential activities like harvesting grapes.

Members of the farmworker community and local activist coalitions such as North Bay Jobs with Justice are pushing for the ag pass program to be formalized, calling for legislation that would add safeguards including hazard pay and disaster insurance for workers. Opponents, which include a newly formed wine industry group called Sonoma Wise, have denied worker mistreatment and object to some of the farmworkers’ demands. This month, Sonoma Wise attended a Board of Supervisors meeting with more than 150 farmworkers donning matching T-shirts to speak out against claims made by North Bay Jobs.

With a new fire season looming, the issue will be addressed at a community meeting next week by a Board of Supervisors ad hoc committee on evacuation-zone access.

Read more here: https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/wine/a ... 185670.php

[weatheriscool]

Critical fire condition warnings issued across US Southwest
Source: AP

By PAUL DAVENPORT

Warnings of critical fire conditions blanketed much of the U.S. Southwest on Saturday, as crews in northern New Mexico worked to stop the growth of the nation’s largest active wildfire.

The 7-week-old fire, the largest in New Mexico history, has burned 491 square miles (1,272 square kilometers) of forest in rugged terrain east of Santa Fe since being started in April by two planned burns.

Crews were patrolling partially burned areas and clearing and cutting containment lines, including primary ones near the fire as bulldozers scraped backup lines farther away.

The National Weather Service issued red flag warnings of critical fire conditions for parts of Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah. Those conditions are combination of strong wind, low relative humidity and dry vegetation.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-ne ... 3522c92ba8

[caltrek]

Australia Fire Victims Struggle to Rebuild as Material Costs Rise
by Zoe Osborne
June 18, 2022

Introduction:

(Al Jazeera) In late 2019, devastating bushfires ripped through eastern Australia, destroying 35 million hectares (86.5 million acres) of land, displacing tens of thousands of people and destroying almost 3,000 homes.

More than two years later, the communities that were hit hardest by the fires are still struggling to get back on their feet, held back by bureaucracy, the rising price of building materials, and a lack of skilled construction workers.

Laura Gillies, a resident of Quaama in southern New South Wales (NSW), with her husband and two children, wants her new home to be made of mud brick, so the process is slower but she says many of her neighbours are struggling even to put up a conventional home.

Many are still “living in shipping containers and caravans and things like that”, she said, unable to even get started.

Part of the problem is that there are not enough builders and other construction specialists to meet the demand.

Read more here: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/6/ ... osts-rise

[weatheriscool]

Spain battles wildfires as it swelters in heatwave
Source: Reuters

June 18, 2022
8:52 AM GMT-2:30

MADRID, June 18 (Reuters) - Firefighters battled to bring raging wildfires under control in several parts of Spain on Saturday amid dry and windy conditions, as a heatwave pushed temperatures close to record highs.

Spain was heading towards its hottest early summer temperatures in decades on Saturday, with forecasts of between 40-42 degrees Celsius (104-108 Fahrenheit) in Zaragoza in the northeast and areas of Navarre and La Rioja in northern Spain, according to national weather agency AEMET.

Many areas of Western Europe have been sweltering under unseasonably hot temperatures over the past few days, compounding climate change fears.

In Spain, Zamora, near the border with Portugal, and Catalonia, in the east, were among the worst hit by wildfires.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/sp ... 022-06-18/

[caltrek]

I have actually heard at least one fire fighter describe his experience in avoiding catastrophe by resorting to the type of shelter described below. It is good to hear about further refinements being made in this potentially life-saving technology.

Four New Designs for Shelters to Protect Firefighters Trapped in Wildfires Could Increase Survival Time
by Laura Oleniacz
June 22, 2022

Introduction:

(Futurity) In lab simulations of wildfire burn-overs—where a wildfire sweeps over a group of trapped firefighters or equipment—temperatures inside the shelters remained within survival limits for longer, and the shelters took longer to break open.

Researchers hope the findings in the International Journal of Wildland Fire (https://www.publish.csiro.au/WF/WF21102), as well as from field tests conducted across North America, could spur the development of new, better shelters. In addition, they hope the findings will inform new standards for shelter design and testing.

“For the wildland firefighter, deploying a shelter is the last thing they want to do—it’s the final resort, the last line of defense,” says coauthor Roger Barker, professor of textile technology at North Carolina State University and the director of the Textile Protection and Comfort Center (TPACC).
“While there’s no such thing as ‘fire-proof,’ what we’re trying to do is to buy more time. We were able to demonstrate our shelters could increase the time to failure—time that could be critical for survival.”

One problem with the industry standard shelter is that the aluminum outer layer will melt in contact with direct flame.

Read more here: https://www.futurity.org/firefighters- ... 757062-2/

[caltrek]

New Study Offers Insight into Past—and Future—of West-side Wildfires
June 24, 2022

Introduction:

(EurekAlert) When the 2020 Labor Day Fires torched more than 300,000 hectares over the span of two weeks in parts of western Oregon and Washington, they devastated communities and put the threat of west-side fires squarely into focus. A new study led by the USDA Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station examines the context surrounding the fires and offers insight into the historical role of large, high-severity fires—and the future of wildfires—west of the Cascades.

"Without a doubt, the 2020 Labor Day Fires were a significant fire event on many levels, and one that was a wake-up call for the region,” said Matthew Reilly, research forester and lead author of the study, which is published in the journal Ecosphere. “The goal of our study was to help understand how this event compared to past west-side fires so that we can help inform adaptation strategies aimed at preventing or mitigating similar events in the future.”

Drawing from a literature review, extensive historical data, and new analysis, Reilly and his co-authors explored five questions surrounding the 2020 Labor Day Fires: how the 2020 fires compared with historical fires in the region, the role of weather and climate, the effects of forest management and pre-fire forest structure on burn severity, the impacts of these fires on west-side landscapes, and what can be done to adapt to similar fires in the future. Ultimately, they found that the 2020 fires were remarkably consistent with historical fires on the west side, both in terms of their timing and size and the cause of their rapid spread—dry conditions combined with strong east winds.

“Our findings suggest that these severe fires are normal for west-side landscapes when you look at historical fire regimes at longer time scales,” Reilly said. In fact, the researchers identified similarly large historical fires in the early 20th century under similar weather conditions—some even burning right around Labor Day—in some of the same locations that burned in 2020.

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/957069

[weatheriscool]

Well, we'll see as I've read that different climatic patterns that range from decades to thousands of years play a very big role in positions of highs and lows. We could easily see a very intense next 100 years of drought leading to unimaginable forest fires. And of course, what ever enhancement green house driven warming adds on top of this.

I pray for the massive cities of the southwest that we are ready with solutions.

[caltrek]

Wildfire Threatens Kitt Peak National Observatory
by David Dickinson
June 22, 2022

Introduction:

(Sky & Telescope) Wildfires and astronomical observatories have two things in common: they both like dry conditions and mountaintops. This was certainly true in the Quinlan Mountains in southern Arizona, where firefighters have been working to contain the Contreras fire that recently threatened the Kitt Peak National Observatory. The fire is still burning, impacting the surrounding communities of the Tohono O’odham Nation.

The Contreras fire started on June 11th and has since burned more than 27,000 acres as of the morning of June 22nd. The National Optical-Infrared Research Laboratory (NOIRLab) has been maintaining a blog with updates on the fire, alongside tweets from Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO; @KittPeakNatObs).

Aerial and ground crews successfully held the line around the observatory this past weekend. Michelle Edwards, the associate director of KPNO and safety manager Joe Davis, who were able to view the outside of the structures at the peak, reported that “all physical scientific observatory structures are still standing.” However, four non-science buildings were lost in the fire.

The so-far minimal damage comes as welcome news after tense moments on Saturday, June 18th, when areas very near the iconic McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope and the large WIYN 3.5-meter Telescope were reported as active fire zones.

Read more here: https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy- ... vatory/

[funkervogt]

Lab-grown meat technology could be used to protect endangered animals.

If the idea of stem-cell-derived meat (human or otherwise) or human blood is still too much to fathom, just remember that this stem-cell technology will ultimately be applied in a variety of other situations.

How about growing rhino horns or elephant tusks? Will it be possible to grow an entire vat full of horn or tusk material to put poachers out of business? Or for that matter, how about stem-cell-derived wolf fur, buffalo hide, or whale skin to help preserve those magnificent creatures?

Once again, anything that grows in nature can be grown inside a cell-cultured bioreactor, so we don’t need to confine our thinking to things that have been used in the past. Even growing large volumes of fingernails, teeth, scales, shells, eyelashes, and feathers may have uses we’ve never dreamed of.

https://futuristspeaker.com/future-of-a ... riculture/

[weatheriscool]

California Wildfire Burns More Than 900 Acres and Prompts Evacuations
Source: NY Times

By Livia Albeck-Ripka

A fast-growing fire near South Yuba River State Park in Nevada County, Calif., about 70 miles northeast of Sacramento, has grown to more than 900 acres in two days, prompting evacuation orders for hundreds of residents of nearby communities, the authorities said Thursday.

The blaze, named the Rices fire, is one of more than 50 large wildfires and complexes that have burned across parts of the United States so far this year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Those fires have collectively burned more than two million acres in 12 states, the center said.

Wildfires are increasing in size and intensity in the Western United States, and their seasons are growing longer. Recent research has suggested that heat and dryness associated with climate change are factors in the increase in bigger and stronger fires.

The Rices fire began in a structure at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, according to the authorities. As of Thursday afternoon, it was about 12 percent contained and was threatening 250 structures, they said.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/30/us/c ... -fire.html

[caltrek]

In the article that follows the results of yet another study are reported upon. While this may be redundant of past articles, there is still not a consensus among the general public accepting these findings. Hence, the need to continue to dwell upon the same themes.

Land’s “Memory” Determined Scope of Awful Dixie Fire
by Sara LaJeunesse
July1, 2022

Introduction:

(Futurity) The 2021 Dixie Fire burned over nearly 1 million acres in California and cost $637 million to suppress, making it the largest and most expensive wildfire to contain in state history.

Fire history largely determined how severely the wildfire burned, and low-severity fire treatments had the largest impact on reducing the worst effects of the fire, according to the findings.

“We’re in extreme drought conditions over most of California,” says Alan Taylor, professor of geography and ecology at Penn State and principal investigator on the project. “The Dixie Fire burned during the hottest summer in California on record and after two years with half the average precipitation and snowpack. The large amounts of fuels that had accumulated due to over a century of fire exclusion were primed to burn intensely due to these extremely dry conditions.

“The 2022 fire season may also be difficult in California. April 1 snowpack was only 38% of normal. In this study we wanted to see what factors help keep fire severity down when drought is extreme.”

DIXIE FIRE ANALYSIS

The researchers examined the Dixie Fire to see how fuel treatments and previous fires affect a wildfire burning under extreme conditions. They gathered Landsat 8 satellite imagery of the fire-damaged area taken immediately after the Dixie Fire and during the same time period in 2020 to create maps of the fire effects on vegetation.

Read more here: https://www.futurity.org/dixie-fire-2761052/

[wjfox]

Portugal on wildfire alert amid heat wave and severe drought

By BARRY HATTON
an hour ago

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Portugal’s government on Friday declared an eight-day state of alert due to a heightened risk of wildfires, as the drought-stricken country prepares for a heat wave packing temperatures as high as 43 degrees Celsius (109 degrees Fahrenheit).

The torrid weather brings with it “a significant worsening of the wildfire risk” through July 15, a joint statement from five government departments said.

Declaring a state of alert gives the government temporary authority to order precautionary measures. The restrictions adopted Friday include barring public access to forests deemed to be at special risk, banning the use of farm machinery that might produce sparks, and outlawing fireworks that are commonly used at summer festivals.

Portugal has long experienced dramatic forest fires. In 2017, blazes killed more than 100 people.

Heat waves and droughts also aren’t uncommon in Portugal, but climate scientists say all of southern Europe can expect higher temperatures and lower rainfall as a consequence of global warming.

https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-cl ... 694ec53adf

[weatheriscool]

Yosemite wildfire threatens grove of iconic sequoia trees
Source: AP

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — The largest grove of giant sequoias in Yosemite National Park remained closed Saturday as firefighters battled a blaze that threatened the gathering of the iconic trees and forced hundreds of campers to evacuate.

The rest of the park in California remained open, though smoke that hung in the air obscured some of the most scenic vistas and views.

More than 500 mature sequoias were threatened in the Mariposa Grove but as of Saturday afternoon there were no reports of severe damage to any named trees, including the 3,000-year-old Grizzly Giant. Some of the massive trunks were wrapped in fire-resistant foil for protection as the blaze burned out of control.

The cause of the fire was under investigation.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-sp ... 899a485def

[caltrek]

Yosemite wildfire threatens grove of iconic sequoia trees
Source: AP

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — The largest grove of giant sequoias in Yosemite National Park remained closed Saturday as firefighters battled a blaze that threatened the gathering of the iconic trees and forced hundreds of campers to evacuate.

The rest of the park in California remained open, though smoke that hung in the air obscured some of the most scenic vistas and views.

More than 500 mature sequoias were threatened in the Mariposa Grove but as of Saturday afternoon there were no reports of severe damage to any named trees, including the 3,000-year-old Grizzly Giant. Some of the massive trunks were wrapped in fire-resistant foil for protection as the blaze burned out of control.

The cause of the fire was under investigation.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-sp ... 899a485def

Also more here: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/ ... t-sequoias

here: https://www.latimes.com/california/stor ... onal-park

and here: https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/11/weather/ ... index.html

In which it is reported that:

"(Common Dreams) The fire has entered the grove," Robbie Johnson, a spokesperson for the fire response, told CNN on Sunday night. "But the good news is because of prescribed burns and clearing out material on the ground, it's clear in the Mariposa Grove," where protection efforts have created a "doughnut hole" shield.

[weatheriscool]

Fires scorch France, Spain; temperature-related deaths soar
Source: AP

By ANGELA CHARLTON and JOSEPH WILSON

PARIS (AP) — Firefighters struggled on Sunday to contain wildfires raging out of control in France and Spain as Europe wilts under an unusually extreme heat wave that authorities link to a rise in excess mortality.

Two huge blazes that have been consuming pine forests for six days just south of the city of Bordeaux in southwest France have forced the evacuation of some 14,000 people, including many who were set to spend their vacation at campsites.

In Spain, firefighters supported by the armed forces’ emergency brigades are trying to stamp out over 30 fires consuming forests spread across the country. Spain’s National Defense Department said that “the majority” of its fire-fighting aircraft have been deployed. Many areas are rugged, hilly terrain that makes it difficult for ground crews to access.

So far, there have been no fire-related deaths in France or Spain. In Portugal, a pilot of a firefighting plane died when his aircraft crashed on Friday.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-fr ... 790a23e94b

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

Wildfire-smoke Observations Fill Gap in Estimating Soot’s Role in Climate Change
July 21, 2022

Introduction:

(EruekAlert) LOS ALAMOS, N.M., July 20, 2022—New research refining the amount of sunlight absorbed by black carbon in smoke from wildfires will help clear up a long-time weak spot in earth system models, enabling more accurate forecasting of global climate change.

“Black carbon or soot is the next most potent climate-warming agent after CO2 and methane, despite a short lifetime of weeks, but its impact in climate models is still highly uncertain,” said James Lee, a climate researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory and corresponding author of the new study in Geophysical Research Letters on light absorption by wildfire smoke. “Our research will clear up that uncertainty.”

The Los Alamos research resolves a long-time disconnect between the observations of the amount of light absorbed by black carbon in smoke and the amount predicted by models, given how black carbon is mixed with other material such as condensed organic aerosols that are present in plumes.
The team used the multi-instrument laboratory Center for Aerosol-gas Forensic Experiments (CAFÉ) at Los Alamos to sample smoke from several wildfires over two summers in the Western United States, including the nearby Medio Fire in New Mexico in 2020 and aged plumes from California and Arizona

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/959584