Apple Fire in California spreads to over 25,000 acres, 8,000 evacuated
A massive wildfire burning in Riverside and San Bernardino counties in California has scorched more than 26,000 acres and was at 5% containment as of Monday afternoon, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The "Apple Fire," which is believed to have started as three separate blazes, broke out Friday afternoon and continues to burn three days later.
How many wildland firefighters have COVID-19? Some agencies won’t, or can’t, say.
Wildland firefighter Alexandru Oarcea fought fires in Arizona with his 20-person crew for four months this season. He faced three of the biggest wildfires in the state’s history, all of which required hundreds of firefighting personnel to contain, and fought fires on the Navajo Nation, which had the highest per-capita coronavirus infection rate in the U.S. in May. Last week, his unit traveled to northern California, where peak fire season is just getting started. He’s now at a fire camp — makeshift cities that serve as bases for hundreds or even thousands of firefighters working to contain large blazes — on a fire that spans more than 80,000 acres. “Insanely crowded camp even for a normal season,” he texted me earlier this week. “This place is gonna turn into a covid nightmare!”
Forest Service firefighters face COVID-19 risks
GREENWIRE | Forest Service fire and aviation crews are seeing an uptick in coronavirus cases as the wildfire season progresses, according to agency officials.
The latest tally is around 200 positive test results, Fire and Aviation Director Patty Grantham told Forest Service retirees this week. Just under half of those are directly involved in firefighting, she said.
Wildland Firefighters are Getting Covid. Many Don’t Have Health Insurance.
For four years, I worked as a hotshot, an elite wildland firefighter. Hotshots are crews of 18–22 initial attack firefighters, often the first to arrive on fires and charged with working closest to the flames. They typically work over a thousand hours of overtime each summer. Training is rigorous, and the job is grueling.
These California inmates risked death to fight wildfires. After prison, they’re left behind
When he was 17, Fernando Herrera saw a bleak future for himself. A life of gangs, violence, arrests and confinement trailed behind him. He wanted something more. While in prison, the Yuba County teen joined a program that would put him on a firefighting inmate crew at the Pine Grove Youth Conservation Camp in Amador County. As an inmate, he helped fight the Thomas Fire that destroyed more than 1,000 buildings in Southern California in 2017.
Arizona wildfires and COVID-19: Firefighters are fighting two battles
For the men and women fighting Arizona wildfires this summer, amidst a pandemic, almost every aspect of day-to-day life has changed drastically.
CAL FIRE to hire more than 1,000 additional firefighters
With the COVID-19 pandemic reducing the number of inmate firefighters, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection is scrambling to find enough personnel to handle the all important job of cutting fireline and mopping up wildfires.
Pandemic sidelines more than 1,000 incarcerated wildfire fighters in California. Low-paid inmates have become a vital part of state’s firefighting efforts, sparking concern over exploitation
A dozen California firefighting camps that house incarcerated firefighters have been quarantined and taken out of commission after a coronavirus outbreak at a state prison, highlighting the precarious situation for these crews.
Navajo Nation faces twin threats as wildfires spread during pandemic
The Wood Springs 2 fire arrived at Michelle Johnson’s home a week ago. Ash from the 13,000-acre wildfire that burned five miles away rained on her land, with thick smoke billowing above the house she shares with her husband and children.
Fire-Engulfed California Short on Firefighters as Prison “Slaves” Under COVID-19 Lockdown
It is the height of California’s dangerous forest fire season. But despite blazes currently raging, the state’s fire department is dangerously understaffed. That is because many firefighters today are not the burly full time professionals of another era, but underpaid convict laborers risking their lives for pennies. Almost 40 percent of California’s firefighters are prisoners. But the state’s penitentiaries are themselves ablaze with COVID-19 outbreaks, leading to widespread lockdowns in what has become a routine for American’s dealing with competing crises.
How COVID-19 will change the way we fight wildfires: Prepare for the return of the Smokey Bear method as social distancing prevents firefighters from using more modern strategies
As the Sawtooth Fire raged across the steep, rugged terrain of Arizona’s Tonto National Forest in the final days of May, the firefighting community watched with intense interest. Not only was the blaze the first major wildfire of the season, but it was the first fire of its size since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A heat wave thawed Siberia's tundra. Now, it's on fire.
For months, Siberia has been experiencing extreme heat due to a combination of persistent sunny weather and human-caused climate change. In addition to producing Arctic temperatures that cracked 100 degrees in June, the heat has fueled an enormous outbreak of wildfires, including fires on tundra underpinned by permafrost—normally frigid soil that is likely becoming even less frozen this year.
California severely short on firefighting crews after COVID-19 lockdown at prison camps
As California enters another dangerous fire season, the COVID-19 pandemic has depleted the ranks of inmate fire crews that are a key component of the state’s efforts to battle out-of-control wildfires
Wildland Firefighters Are Risking Their Mental Health
In 2015, Danny Brown discovered his friend, Dave Ruhl's burnt corpse lying among the lava rocks after the Frog Fire erupted in Modoc National Forest in northern CA. For the past 4 years, Danny has not only battled PTSD and the effects of that traumatic day but also the BLM after they forced him into a medical retirement.Michael Hanson/HCN
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This piece was originally published in High Country News and appears here as part of our Climate Desk Partnership.
An hour or so before dawn in late July 2015, just south of the California-Oregon border, Danny Brown turned off the highway into the Modoc National Forest and headed toward a menacing glow of flames to the west. As he drove through a labyrinth of dirt logging roads, the smoke thickened in the beams of his headlights. At 46, Brown had been a wildland firefighter with the Bureau of Land Management for 14 seasons. He was a leader, reliable and steady. Within hours, all of that would change.
Fire behavior analyst calculates the probability of embers from Mount Rushmore fireworks igniting wildfires
With a large fireworks show slated to be carried out this evening over the Mount Rushmore sculpture and the surrounding pine forest, I solicited a fire expert, a Fire Behavior Analyst, to develop a forecast to predict the danger presented by the burning embers that fall to the ground.
‘Zombie Fires’ in the Arctic Pump Out Carbon at Record Pace
Soaring temperatures that reached 38 degrees celcius in the Arctic Circle reignite wildfires.
Amazon rainforest fires sharply increased in June – raising concerns about a repeat of last year's devastation
The number of fires in the Amazon jumped 20 percent this June compared to June last year, raising concerns that the rainforest could see a repeat of last year's destructive fires.
Trump’s Contagion Road Show Heads West
Fireworks have been banned at Mt. Rushmore for 10 years due to their wildfire danger and pollution of scarce local water supplies by perchlorate — which causes endocrine and reproductive problems and is classified as a “likely human carcinogen” by the EPA. Illustrating the depth of his ignorance, Trump said “What can burn? It’s stone,” totally ignoring the surrounding dry Ponderosa pine forests that readily burn.
Arizona reels as three of the biggest wildfires in its history ravage state
For residents of Tucson in southern Arizona, the Santa Catalina Mountains in the Coronado national forest are known as a hub for hiking, mountain biking and other outdoor recreation.
San Quentin COVID-19 Outbreak Spreads To Susanville Prison, Threatens Inmate Firefighting Work Crews
SACRAMENTO (CBS SF) -- A new threat from the out-of-control COVID-19 outbreak at San Quentin State Prison, where nearly a third of the inmate population has become infected with the disease, came to light Wednesday during a state Senate hearing probing the handling of the crisis by corrections officials.