Category Archives: Wildfires

Easter Island rebounds from wildfire that damaged famous statues

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October fire blackened with soot monolithic human figures, of which there are more than 900, carved centuries ago

The hillside of Rano Raraku volcano on Rapa Nui feels like a place that froze in time.

Embedded in grass and volcanic rock, almost 400 moai – the monolithic human figures carved centuries ago by this remote Pacific island’s Rapanui people – remained untouched until recently. Some are buried from the neck down, the heads seemingly observing their surroundings from the underground.

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The arrest that shocked the firefighting world – and threatens a vital practice

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A fire chief is under investigation for a prescribed burn gone wrong and stirred up long-simmering tensions over wildfire risk

Hours before Rick Snodgrass was cuffed and loaded into a squad car, he’d called the sheriff himself. The United States Forest Service burn boss had requested the help of local law enforcement in Grant county, Oregon, reporting his crew was being harassed while conducting a controlled burn within the Malheur national forest.

It was the second burn that crews had conducted in the area in two weeks, with flames intended to char around 300 acres. But that warm October afternoon, the treatment did not go according to plan.

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Firefighters tackle blaze on Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro

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Police and locals help firefighters attempt to put out fire that was spread by strong winds overnight

Tanzanian authorities said on Sunday that a fire on Mount Kilimanjaro was mostly under control after flames burned Africa’s tallest mountain for more than 24 hours.

The blaze began on Friday evening near the Karanga site used by climbers ascending the famous peak, at about 4,000 metres altitude on its south side.

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US Forest Service employee arrested in Oregon over spread of prescribed burn

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Unprecedented arrest comes after fire burned 20 acres of private land. Now, experts fear backlash against the wildfire control tool

A US Forest Service employee in Oregon was arrested this week after a prescribed burn in a national forest spread onto private land. It is an unprecedented move that signals an alarming backlash to prescribed burning, a critical tool in wildfire management.

Rick Snodgrass, a “burn boss” with the forest service, was overseeing a 300-acre burn in Oregon’s Malheur national forest that had been approved by the agency. A spot fire escaped control, according to officials in Grant county and charred roughly 20 acres of private land belonging to Holiday Ranches.

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California bans insurers from dropping customers in wake of largest wildfire

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State enacts temporary insurance protections for a quarter-million homeowners in areas affected by recent blazes

California temporarily banned insurance companies on Thursday from dropping customers in areas affected by recent wildfires, a day after evacuation orders were lifted for residents near a two-week-old blaze that’s become the largest in the state so far this year.

Several days of sporadic rain helped firefighters reach 60% containment on the Mosquito fire in the Sierra foothills about 110 miles (177km) north-east of San Francisco. At least 78 homes and other structures have been destroyed since flames broke out 6 September and charred forestland across Placer and El Dorado counties.

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Alaskans continue to grapple with fallout from typhoon-related flooding

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Rising waters brought power outages, damage and concerns over surviving the winter as downpours also affected California

Floodwaters in Alaska are receding after the remnants of a powerful typhoon pummeled the state’s western coastline. But residents are continuing to grapple with power outages, water damage and concerns about how to survive the coming winter.

This weekend, a low-pressure system spinning out from Alaska made its way down the coast to northern California, bringing rare September rain to the region. The downpours aided efforts to contain the 19 sq mile (49 sq km) Mosquito fire in the Sierra Nevada foothills, but raised new concerns.

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Mudslides hit Los Angeles mountain area as thousands told to evacuate

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Heavy rains are remnants of tropical storm that brought badly needed rainfall to drought-stricken southern California last week

Thousands of residents of a mountain area east of Los Angeles were under evacuation and shelter-in-place orders after heavy rains unleashed mudslides, sending boulders and other debris across roads.

Firefighters went street by street in the community of Forest Falls on Monday night to make sure no residents were trapped. Eric Sherwin, spokesperson for the San Bernardino county fire department, said crews hadn’t found anyone who needed to be rescued and no one was reported missing. Crews would canvas the neighborhoods again and begin cleanup efforts after sunrise, he said.

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Air quality plummets as smoke from roaring wildfires chokes US west

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Blazes in California, Washington and Oregon cause widespread damage as plumes travel across states and into Canada

California firefighters are battling large blazes across the state as the west’s fire season heats up, covering swaths of Oregon, Washington, California and Canada in heavy smoke that has also traveled across the US.

Rain from tropical storm Kay brought relief to firefighters in southern California after a punishing heatwave gripped much of the state for more than a week and sent some crews to the hospital.

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California fights to control raging wildfires as threat of flash floods grows

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Southern California prepares for arrival of tropical storm that could affect power grid, while crews work to subdue growing fires

Tropical Storm Kay surged toward California on Friday, whipping up strong gusty winds and threatening to fuel ferocious wildfires already burning across the state.

After days of record-breaking heat that tested California’s energy capacity, baked moisture out of the drought-stricken landscapes and spurred the spread of deadly fires , the arrival of Kay, which started as a hurricane but was downgraded to a tropical storm, brought risks of flash floods and threatened more trouble for the state’s electric grid.

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Fires, heat … a hurricane? California’s ‘most unusual’ week of extreme weather

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A record heatwave added stress to the electrical grid and made firefighting difficult. Now a hurricane could bring flash floods

A collision of extreme weather events is bearing down on California as wildfires threaten communities, a record-setting heatwave is adding stress to the electrical grid, and moisture from a hurricane is expected to bring thunderstorms and flash floods.

Hurricane Kay, swirling off the coast of Mexico, is on its way north, bringing with it the chance of strong winds, severe rainstorms, and possibly dry lightning that could increase risks for new fire starts. It also could bring some welcome relief to the week of brutally hot weather.

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California’s week of heat and wildfires foretell a punishing autumn

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The fall season traditionally brings the highest fire risk to the west, but experts are bracing for even more explosive blazes

It was an explosive Labor Day across California, as an intense, days-long heatwave smashed temperature records, spurred the spread of deadly and destructive wildfires, and bathed cities in a stifling heat even long after the sun went down.

The events mark a grueling start of what traditionally make up the highest fire-risk months in the west, with experts bracing for a higher potential of a punishing autumn even after a milder-than-expected summer.

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Fast-moving California wildfire poses threat to rural communities

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About 7,500 people in Weed and those nearby under evacuation orders as much of state faces brutal heatwave

A fast-moving wildfire in northern California is threatening rural communities near the Oregon border, injuring people and torching homes.

About 7,500 people in Weed and several nearby communities were under evacuation orders on Saturday as the flames raced through tinder-dry grass. Much of California is facing a brutal heatwave this weekend that’s likely to see some of the hottest weather of the year.

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Blazes erupt across California as state bakes in scorching heat

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Seven firefighters hospitalized, with extreme temperatures expected to last through Labor Day

Firefighters were battling blazes across California in grueling heat on Friday, as fast-moving flames erupted near the Oregon border and prompted evacuation orders for at least 5,000 people.

Residents of the towns of Weed, Lake Shasta and Edgewood in Siskiyou County were told to evacuate after a blaze, dubbed the Mill fire, began spreading in hot and windy conditions and grew to 500 acres in about an hour, the Siskiyou sheriff’s office said in a statement.

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At least 38 people killed as ‘tornado of fire’ rages in northern Algeria

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Hundreds forced to flee homes and at least 200 injured as firefighters battle string of blazes in El Tarf province

Algerian firefighters were on Thursday battling a string of blazes, fanned by drought and a blistering heatwave, that have killed at least 38 people and left destruction in their wake.

Deadly forest fires have become an annual scourge in the north African country, where the climate crisis is turning large areas into a tinderbox.

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Spain wildfires: up to 20 injured after passengers break out of train engulfed by flames

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Train driver was in process of reversing train out of danger when panicked passengers broke the windows to escape

As many as 20 passengers have suffered burns, three of them seriously, after they jumped from a train when it was engulfed by a forest fire near Castellón in north-east Spain.

The train, en route from Sagunto in the eastern province of Valencia, to Zaragoza, stopped while the driver, seeing that the fire meant it was too dangerous to proceed, was preparing to reverse the train.

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Wildfires in Europe burn area equivalent to one-fifth of Belgium

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Experts say drought and extreme high temperatures likely to make it a record year for destruction by fires

Across Europe, an area equivalent to one-fifth of Belgium has been ravaged by flames as successive searing heatwaves and a historic drought propel the continent towards what experts say is likely to be a record year for wildfire destruction.

According to data from the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis), 659,541 hectares (1.6m acres) of land burned across the continent between January and mid-August, the most at this time of year since records began in 2006.

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Thousands evacuated as smouldering French wildfire reignites

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High temperatures and drought in the wine-growing region of Gironde force partial closure of motorway

About 10,000 people have been evacuated to save them from wildfires in the Gironde region of south-west France after a massive blaze that destroyed more than 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres) of pine forest in July sparked up again and tore through woodland.

“The fire is rampant and has now spread to the Landes départment,” local authorities in the wine-growing départment said. The French government doubled the number of firefighters to 1,000 on Wednesday afternoon, supported by planes dropping water.

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Canadian province declares emergency amid worst wildfires in over 50 years

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Blazes have consumed vast tracts of forest in Newfoundland and Labrador and remain out of control

Officials in Canada’s easternmost province have issued a state of emergency as crews battle the worst wildfires the region has experienced in more than half a century.

Sprawling blazes have consumed thousands of hectares of forest in Newfoundland and Labrador over the last two weeks and remain out of control.

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Homes destroyed as Washington state wildfire forces evacuation of town

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Fourteen structures burnt in Lind, in east of state, as forecasters in California warn ‘sleeping giant’ McKinney fire could grow further

A small town in Washington state was evacuated due to a fast-moving fire that burned a half-dozen homes, as crews in California made progress against the state’s deadliest and largest wildfire of the year.

In Washington, the Adams county sheriff’s office warned residents of Lind on Thursday afternoon to flee due to the encroaching flames.

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California hamlet reduced to ashes as wildfire rages on

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Several thousand people are under evacuation orders and at least four bodies have been found due to the McKinney fire

A huge wildfire raging in northern California continues to burn out of control as residents of a scenic river town razed by the fire return to scenes of destruction.

In the hamlet of Klamath River, home to about 200 people, most homes and businesses have turned to ash. Several thousand people in the region remain under evacuation orders, and at least four have been killed.

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