California Housing Policy Is Making Wildfires Worse
Monday morning, Sept. 28, California woke up sweaty, devastated, even shocked to find the state burning again. But if we’re honest, and to our great shame, no one was surprised. We’d seen this horror movie in this town. Three years ago, wildfire killed 25 people in Sonoma County. Now the Glass Fire was there, again, burning toward Santa Rosa.
'Like a freight train': Firefighters describe what it's like riding out a wildfire in a fire shelter, their last resort for safety.
One of the most important parts of a firefighter's gear is a 5-pound piece of equipment they hope they never have to use.
On Sept. 27, firefighters battling the Glass Fire in Napa County found themselves in dire circumstances as gusty off-shore winds intensified the blaze, helping the inferno destroy some of wine country's most famous vineyards and bed and breakfasts.
California wildfires shatter records, double in size from 2019
California’s wildfires surpassed a grim milestone Sunday, more than doubling the size of last year’s blazes — though the fire season is still far from over.
Why do California fires keep burning in the same places?
Shasta County burns every year, and blazes retracing their flames on landscape recently charred by wildfire isn't unusual.
So don't be surprised the Zogg Fire is burning within the footprint of the 2018 Carr Fire — even though in some areas the Carr Fire destroyed all trees, brush and grass in its path, experts say.
The West’s Infernos Are Melting Our Sense of How Fire Works
On the windy, hot day of July 26, 2018, as record 113-degree temperatures baked Redding, California, in the northern Sacramento Valley, Eric Knapp toiled in an air-conditioned government office. After work, he planned to meet his wife and 3-year-old daughter, and some family friends, for dinner. Slender and fair-skinned with a gentle smile, Knapp is a research ecologist for the US Forest Service. He was well aware that, three days earlier, in coastal mountains west of town, a wildfire had started when a trailer got a flat tire and the metal wheel rim scraped the asphalt, sending sparks into dry brush.
‘Horrifying’ Glass Fire burns homes, with 68,000 from Santa Rosa to Napa fleeing
A massive and chaotic wildfire that burned dozens of homes and threatened thousands more across Wine Country flared up on several fronts Monday, roaring across the northern Napa Valley and blazing toward dense residential neighborhoods in eastern Santa Rosa.
We’re Living in a Fire Zone
The holiday Farm Fire that started Labor Day evening spread quickly, traveling 14 miles overnight and destroying most of the buildings in the community of Blue River. Now a Eugene-based ecology group has analyzed just how the fire spread.
West Coast Wildfires: “California Is Built To Burn"
The sky over California is reddish brown. An army of nearly 20,000 firefighters has been battling against wildfires that have already charred over 3 million acres, destroyed over 6,000 houses and driven thousands of residents to flee. How could this happen?
Amid COVID and Wildfires, Farmworkers Have Been Pushed to the Brink
We’ve seen this before — in 2018, when farmworkers in California labored as fires raged in the background, contaminating the air and creating inhospitable work conditions.
Dylan Plummer (op-ed): Industrial forest management and the Holiday Farm Fire
While we all want an easy answer, there is no single cause for the recent mega-fires. We do know that the conditions were ripe to burn: high temperatures, low humidity, severe east winds and a surrounding landscape made up largely of cutover, flammable tree plantations. We also know that runaway climate change is going to exacerbate these types of cataclysmic events into the future.
California braces for power shutoffs and warm, windy weekend
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Firefighters and officials at California’s largest utility company braced for hot, dry and windy weather in northern and central areas of the state this weekend that may fan the flames of several major wildfires or ignite new ones.
The Forest Service Not Only Loses Money Logging, It Makes Fires Worse
In the middle of yet another big wildfire seasons, some reporters finally listened to fire scientists when they quoted people like Dr. Higuera, an associate professor of fire ecology at the University of Montana, stating that climate change is resulting in making big wildfire seasons the new normal.
Global warming driving California wildfire trends - study
Climate change is driving the scale and impact of recent wildfires that have raged in California, say scientists.
Their analysis finds an "unequivocal and pervasive" role for global heating in boosting the conditions for fire.
California now has greater exposure to fire risks than before humans started altering the climate, the authors say.
West Coast Wildfires Underscore Ominous Global Trend: Forests Are Dying
Behind the apocalyptic wildfires in California and Oregon, another ominous trend is creeping across the globe: Everywhere in the world, trees are dying, with the biggest trees going first. Entire forests are threatened worldwide.
Fanning the Flames
“It’s the legacy of forest mismanagement that is fueling the wildfires, along with climate change, which is the ultimate driver,” says Tim Ingalsbee, executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology (FUSEE).
Oregon on fire
On this episode of Locus Focus we talk with Allie Rosenbluth, with Rogue Climate in Phoenix, Oregon and Dominick DellaSala, with Wild Heritage in Talent, who were both forced to evacuate from their homes in Talent last week. Later we’ll also talk with former wildfire fighter and founder of Fire Fighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology, Tim Ingalsbee in Eugene and Eric de Place, with Sightline Institute in Seattle. These conversations are taking place as smoke chokes the Pacific Northwest and massive fires are still burning across the region.
La Californie dans le pie'ge infernal des me’ga-incendies
C'est par un coup de fil de son propriétaire que Delyth Kitch a été réveillée, dimanche 27 septembre, à 6 heures du matin. L'infirmière a enfilé un pantalon à fleurs et un tee-shirt taché, attrapé deux bacs de linge sale, son ordinateur et ses deux chats avant de grimper dans sa voiture. Depuis deux heures, un feu se propageait rapidement dans la forêt à l'ouest d'Angwin, un village de près de 4.000 habitants dans la Napa Valley, la région viticole au nord de San Francisco, déjà ravagée par les incendies en 2017. La sexagénaire a rejoint l'hôtel où elle avait séjourné un mois plus tôt à cause d'un autre incendie avant de se présenter à CrossWalk Church, une église transformée en refuge. « J'en suis à mon quatrième incendie en deux ans », raconte cette ancienne militaire qui garde le sourire « grâce à [sa] foi en Dieu ». En novembre 2018, elle a survécu au feu de Paradise, le plus meurtrier de l'histoire de la Californie , mais a perdu « [sa] maison, [sa] voiture, [son] camping-car et [son] job en un jour ».
Catastrophic wildfires, corporate air pollution, and COVID-19: A collision of crises
Devastating wildfires that have broken out across the western United States, particularly in California, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, which at latest count have claimed 33 lives and 4.6 million acres of land, are increasingly creating the potential for three major crises to collide: wildfires, air pollution and the coronavirus pandemic.