Fires have caused two deaths, including one in Oklahoma, as largest blaze is 30% contained after burning nearly 85 square miles
Wildfires continued to scorch parts of Texas on Monday while a storm system moving through could bring much-needed rain but also strong winds, forecasters said.
The Eastland Complex, which comprises several fires in one place, had burned nearly 85 square miles in an area about 120 miles west of Dallas and was 30% contained as of Monday morning.
Continue reading...Governor declares disaster in 11 counties as experts warn of fires in parts of Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska
Fire crews in Texas made progress on Saturday against a massive complex of wildfires that killed a deputy sheriff and burned at least 50 homes, officials said.
“Progress has been made but fire activity has picked up with rising temperatures and lower humidity,” said Matt Ford, spokesperson for Texas A&M Forest Services. He said about 25% of the flames were contained, up from about 4% late on Friday as the fire burned thick brush and grass fields.
Continue reading...Gusty conditions were expected to complicate containment efforts and ‘support wildfire activity’ in the Eastland Complex fire
Low humidity and gusty winds fueled multiple wildfires on Friday in Texas, burning homes and other buildings and prompting hundreds to evacuate .
Fueled by strong winds through dangerously dry brush and grass fields, the wildfires merged to form what fire officials call a “complex” that was burning near Eastland, about 120 miles (195 km) west of Dallas. As of Friday morning, fires in the area had burned roughly 52,700 acres (21,300 hectares), according to Texas A&M forest service, including the 45,383-acre (18,365-hectare) Eastland Complex fire that was only 4% contained.
Continue reading...Veterans at a nursing home also evacuated, as well as residents of at least 1,100 houses, as firefighters battle two fires
Veterans at a nursing home were evacuated, joining residents from more than 1,000 homes, as firefighters and emergency workers battled two massive wildfires Sunday in an area of the Florida Panhandle that was still recovering from destruction caused by a category-5 hurricane more than three years ago.
The 8,000-acre Bertha Swamp Road fire and the 841-acre Adkins Avenue fire threatened homes and forced residents of at least 1,100 houses in Bay county to flee over the weekend.
Continue reading...Smoke blown from fires in drought-striken Argentina shrouds Asunción and surrounding regions in dangerous haze
A massive, fast-moving cloud of ash hundreds of metres tall and several kilometres wide has swept over southern Paraguay, as storms blew debris from wildfires raging in neighbouring Argentina following two years of severe drought.
The colossal bank of smog enveloped Asunción, Paraguay’s capital, late on Monday, shrouding the city and its suburbs in a thick, grey haze with the aroma of burnt vegetation.
Continue reading...A vast, fast-moving cloud of ash hundreds of metres tall and several kilometres wide has swept over southern Paraguay, blown in from wildfires raging in neighbouring Argentina after two years of severe drought.
A weather front of cold air from the south acted 'like a broom', explained Eduardo Dose, a Paraguayan hydrologist, scooping up soot from burnt pastures and forests as well as dust from drought-stricken wetlands. Strong winds then channelled the choking cloud
Wildfires send giant cloud of ash across southern Paraguay
Continue reading...From the return of wildlife to the pressures of tourism and the climate crisis, Steven Fuller has seen it all in his nearly 50 years watching over America’s oldest national park
• Read more: Native Americans are at the heart of Yellowstone. After 150 years, they are finally being heard
As “winterkeeper” at Yellowstone national park, Steven Fuller lives in a rustic cedar-shingled cottage, built in 1910, set on a hill a short walk from the majestic Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
On balmier days, with the windows open, he can hear the roar of the 308ft Lower Falls tumbling into the chasm. In autumn, he is treated to the sound of bugling bull elk in rut or, in the middle of night, the howls of wolves.
Continue reading...Despite the rise of headline-grabbing megafires, fewer fires are burning worldwide now than at any time since antiquity. But this isn’t good news – in banishing fire from sight, we have made its dangers stranger and less predictable
The hundreds of bush fires that hit southern Australia on 7 February 2009 felt, according to witnesses, apocalyptic. It was already hellishly hot that day: 46.4C in Melbourne. As the fires erupted, day turned to night, flaming embers the size of pillows rained down, burning birds fell from the trees and the ash-filled air grew so hot that breathing it, one survivor said, was like “sucking on a hairdryer”. More than 2,000 homes burned down, and 173 people died. New South Wales’s fire chief, visiting Melbourne days later, encountered “shocked, demoralised” firefighters, racked by “feelings of powerlessness”.
Australians call the event Black Saturday – a scorched hole in the national diary. There, it contends with Red Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, Black Thursday, Black Friday and Black Sunday on Australia’s calendar of conflagration. But recently it has been surpassed – they all have – by the Black Summer, the cataclysmic 2019-20 fire season that killed hundreds with its smoke and burned an area the size of Ireland. A study estimated that the bushfires destroyed or displaced 3 billion animals; its stunned lead author couldn’t think of any fire worldwide that had killed nearly so many.
Continue reading...Hundreds of people in California were told to evacuate because of a new blaze as authorities were forced to shut one of the state's main highways. Firefighters were battling the blaze that broke out in rugged mountains in Big Sur on Friday night and quickly spread toward the sea, fanned by strong winds of up to 50mph. The blaze burned at least 2.3 square miles of brush and redwood trees
Continue reading...The Colorado fire grew to more than 2.3 sq miles while, earlier in the day, the vice-president outlined a response to reduce risk
On the day Vice-President Kamala Harris visited California to highlight new funding for fighting wildfires, hundreds of residents in the Big Sur area in the north of the state were told to evacuate due to a new blaze.
The fire broke out on Friday night in a steep canyon, in the rugged mountains above Big Sur. Fanned by wind gusts of up to 50mph, it quickly burned at least 2.3 square miles of brush and redwood trees, said Cecile Juliette, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
“The fire lined up with the wind and the terrain and that gave the fire a lot of energy to make a big run,” Juliette said.
Exclusive: Studies show high temperatures and air pollution during pregnancy can cause lifelong health effects
The climate crisis is damaging the health of foetuses, babies and infants across the world, six new studies have found.
Scientists discovered increased heat was linked to fast weight gain in babies, which increases the risk of obesity in later life. Higher temperatures were also linked to premature birth, which can have lifelong health effects, and to increased hospital admissions of young children.
Continue reading...At least seven reported injured while cause of the blaze remains under investigation
Up to 1,000 buildings may have been destroyed in the record wildfire that swept through a Colorado area abutting the Rocky Mountains, as Joe Biden declared the situation a disaster and experts warned that the climate crisis and suburban expansion contributed to the devastation.
After declaring that it was a miracle, based on the latest information, that no one was killed in the fire that roared with little notice through Boulder county on Thursday, officials said that more than 500 and as many as 1,000 homes and businesses may have been razed.
Continue reading...Two fast-moving wildfires driven by strong winds erupted in northern Colorado on Thursday afternoon, destroying close to 600 homes and forcing tens of thousands of residents to flee.
The fires, burning to the north and south of the city of Boulder, were fanned by gusts that whipped flames and smoke into a frenzy. Officials said during a Thursday evening news conference that the fires had already blackened 1,600 acres
Continue reading...Blazes in western US have hit thousands of Earth’s largest trees, once considered almost fire-proof
Lightning-sparked wildfires killed thousands of giant sequoias this year, adding to a staggering two-year death toll that accounts for up to nearly a fifth of Earth’s largest trees, officials said on Friday.
Fires in Sequoia national park and the surrounding national forest that also bears the trees’ name tore through more than a third of groves in California and torched an estimated 2,261 to 3,637 sequoias. Fires in the same area last year killed an unprecedented 7,500 to 10,400 of the 75,000 trees.
Continue reading...Alarm grows about climate change in British Columbia after summer wildfires wiped out vegetation that could have slowed flooding
Emergency crews in western Canada were still trying to reach some 18,000 people stranded by landslides and struggling to find food among bare grocery store shelves after devastating flooding.
With communities in the region braced for more torrential rain in already inundated areas next week , the premier of British Columbia province declared an emergency and gave an emotional address in a press conference on Thursday.
Continue reading...Glasgow 2021 must be the moment when the promise of Paris 2015 becomes real – history will not forgive us otherwise
Summits do not always live up to the name. They can get bogged down in detail and disagreement, never really reaching altitude.
That is often the case with the annual UN climate summits known simply as the Cop, which have earned a reputation since the first was held 26 years ago for being bewildering marathons that overrun and underdeliver.
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Continue reading...As global heating sees a surge in wildfires, we hear from those tackling the blazes, who face injury, death and trauma, often without proper equipment or support
In Greece, fires take up a lot of resources. There isn’t enough money to recruit the number of [firefighters] needed or to buy the necessary equipment. Volunteers plug the gaps.
Continue reading...Researchers call for new firefighting techniques that focus on managing landscapes, as global heating sees increase in blazes
A new approach is urgently needed to tackle global wildfires as current methods are no longer working, draining the public purse and placing lives at risk, according to experts.
This summer saw some of the worst wildfires in history and underscored the destructive impacts of global heating. As Cop26 approaches and is expected to shine a light on the importance of protecting ecosystems and building defences to avoid loss of homes and lives, experts say a lack of foresight and funding worldwide means harmful wildfires will continue to rage, putting communities and firefighters in danger.
Continue reading...‘Artivist’ Thiago Mundano used ash from Amazon fires to paint a towering monument to Brazil’s firefighters in São Paulo
Continue reading...A wildfire in northern California spread rapidly on Thursday, burning homes and prompting evacuation orders in a rural community in Shasta county. The Fawn fire in northern California started Wednesday north of Redding in Shasta county, and scorched more than 8.5 sq miles (22 sq km) of heavy timber on steep, rugged terrain amid hot, dry and gusty conditions. A woman was arrested on suspicion of starting the fire
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