Category Archives: Wildfires

Heatwave sweeps across large parts of Australia as bushfire threatens Queensland border town

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Weather warnings across multiple states on Wednesday as Dirranbandi residents told to evacuate

A heat warning is in place for large parts of Queensland on Wednesday with temperatures hitting 40C in parts of the state.

The Bureau of Meteorology issued a heatwave warning for much of the state, forecasting severe conditions around north-west and inland areas.

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Hundreds evacuated in Oakland after California brush fire grows out of control

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Residents told to flee as firefighters battle blaze, with two homes burned and several others damaged

A fast-moving fire fed by strong winds burned two homes on Friday and damaged several others in a hillside neighborhood in the city of Oakland, where roughly 500 people were ordered to evacuate, officials said.

Damon Covington, the city’s fire chief, said that at about 1.30pm, calls had come in reporting a fire in front of a home in the Oakland hills. Crews arrived as the inferno quickly grew with winds ranging from calm breezes to 40mph (64km/h) gusts during red-flag conditions.

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Potentially lifesaving Blue Mountains fire trails obstructed as bushfire season begins

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Exclusive: Residents who fought the black summer bushfires are concerned access tracks are not being maintained

Residents of a Blue Mountains town who were forced to defend themselves against an out-of-control backburn during the black summer bushfires are concerned fire trails in the area are not being maintained ahead of the fire season.

Guardian Australia has seen photographs of fallen trees obstructing two fire trails in Bilpin near the Tutti Fruitti cafe and surrounding homes, which were destroyed when the Rural Fire Service lost control of the backburn it lit near Mount Wilson in December 2019.

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Hellish heat and primal fear: Croatian firefighters on frontline of climate crisis

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Firefighters are stoic about the risks they face but say climate change has affected every part of the job

A short drive and a world away from the tourist-thronged old town of Split, past retirees clambering out of cruise ships and stag parties stumbling into beachside bars, Ivan Sanader studied a smouldering hillside that stank of smoke.

The night before, he had fought a fire that charred the slope and threatened to engulf a roadside restaurant. Now, the commander of a mobile firefighter centre in Croatia was issuing orders to stop it flaring back up.

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‘Absolute chaos’: counting the cost of a deadly wildfire in northern Portugal

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Residents of Albergaria-a-Velha tell of the fear and losses brought by a blaze that evoked memories of 2017 disaster

The fires are out in Albergaria-a-Velha now, their embers washed away by the heavy rain. But their reek still carries on the damp air, rising from the sooty earth, the scorched tree trunks, the burnt-out cars and houses, and the puddles of black and acrid water.

If the numbers offer a glimpse of the toll that last week’s wildfires took on this northern Portuguese municipality – four people dead, at least seven injured, 25,269 hectares burned and 81 homes damaged – they cannot convey the sense of fear and loss that the 26-metre-high flames brought with them.

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Weather tracker: Extensive flooding in Japan after ‘unprecedented’ rainfall

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One dead and several missing as ‘life-threatening situation’ declared in earthquake-hit Ishikawa prefecture

Heavy rain caused extensive flooding in central Japan over the weekend, with at least one person reported dead and several more unaccounted for.

Officials said “unprecedented” rainfall generated floods and landslides in Ishikawa prefecture, where a powerful 7.5-magnitude earthquake on New Year’s Day killed more than 200 people. The Japan meteorological agency issued its highest-level warning for Ishikawa, advising of a “life-threatening situation”.

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‘It’s guerrilla warfare’: Brazil fire teams fight Amazon blazes – and the arsonists who start them

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Firefighters and police in Rondônia battle fires intensified by both the climate crisis and a criminal assault on the rainforest

The occupants of the vinyl-coated military tents at this remote jungle camp in Brazil’s wild west compare the hellscape surrounding them to catastrophes old and new: the extinction of the dinosaurs, the bombardment of Gaza, the obliteration of Hiroshima during the second world war.

“It’s as if a nuclear bomb has gone off. There’s no forest. There’s nothing. Everything’s burned. It’s chaos,” said Lt Col Victor Paulo Rodrigues de Souza as he gave a tour of the base on the frontline of Brazil’s fight against one of its worst burning seasons in years and a relentless assault on the greatest tropical rainforest on Earth.

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Portugal wildfire deaths rise to seven after firefighters trapped in blaze

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More than 50 people injured as 54 fires burn across country amid hot, dry and windy weather

Seven people have been killed and more than 50 injured in wildfires ravaging central and northern Portugal, authorities have said, after three firefighters died on Tuesday when their vehicle was trapped in flames.

Portugal’s civil protection service said 54 wildfires were burning nationwide, mainly in the north, with 5,300 firefighters mobilised. France, Greece, Italy and Spain sent eight water-bombing planes through the EU’s mutual assistance mechanism.

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Mother of man accused in California wildfire says ‘he did not light that fire’

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Arson charges filed against Justin Wayne Halstenberg in San Bernardino county, which has burned 38,000 acres

The mother of the 34-year-old man accused of starting the Line fire in southern California – which has scorched at least 38,000 acres (15,378 hectares) and destroyed one home – has spoken out in defense of her son, telling the Los Angeles Times on Thursday that “he did not light that fire”.

Arson-related charges have been filed against Justin Wayne Halstenberg, who is accused of starting the San Bernardino county blaze on 5 September. He is due to be arraigned on Monday according to the San Bernardino county district attorney’s office.

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Los Angeles hit by double whammy of wildfires and earthquake

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Residents were rattled by a 4.7 magnitude quake while firefighters are trying to put out blazes east of the city

Millions of residents in the Los Angeles area were rattled by a 4.7 magnitude earthquake that hit early on Thursday morning and came as the region continues to battle multiple wildfires that yet to be brought under control.

The quake’s epicenter was 4 miles north of Malibu, according to the US Geological Survey. The tremor unleashed boulders on to a Malibu road, visibly shook Santa Monica’s historic 1909 wooden pier and jolted people from bed. No injuries or damages were immediately reported.

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Thirteen people including firefighters injured in ‘hellish’ California wildfires

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Several blazes ravage state after record-breaking heatwave last week with temperatures topping 100F

As least 13 people have been injured in three major southern California wildfires that broke out this week during a scorching heatwave. Firefighters battling the blazes, already stretched to the limits by a challenging summer, were among the injured.

The Bridge fire in the Angeles national forest, located north of Glendora, exploded from about 4,000 acres (1,600 hectares) on Tuesday to 34,000 acres that evening, according to the Los Angeles Times.

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Brazilian president flies into Amazon amid alarm over droughts and wildfires

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Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva says Amazonia suffering its worst drought in more than 40 years

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has flown into the Amazon amid growing alarm over the droughts and wildfires sweeping the rainforest region and others parts of Brazil.

Speaking during a visit to a riverside community near the city of Tefé, the Brazilian president said Amazonia was suffering its worst drought in more than 40 years. He said he had come to discover “what is going on with these mighty rivers” that in some places now resemble deserts.

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Fast-spreading wildfire east of LA forces thousands to flee amid fierce heatwave

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California’s Line fire, only 3% contained, has charred more than 21,000 acres as temperatures soar into triple digits

Thousands of people east of Los Angeles have been ordered to flee their homes from an out-of-control wildfire that has burned through a large area of forest.

In southern California, currently in the grip of a ferocious heatwave, the so-called Line fire has burned areas around San Bernardino national forest, about 65 miles (105km) east of Los Angeles.

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Weather tracker: extreme heat hits Brazil, fuelling risk of wildfires

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Some African countries, meanwhile, hit by unusual rainfall with flooding killing at least 170 people

Unrelenting heat will continue across parts of Brazil this week with temperatures about 5C to 10C above the 1991 to 2020 average.

Daytime temperatures will reach 35C to 40C in parts of the Central West region, affecting cities such as Belo Horizonte, Brasília and Manaus. This extreme heat is likely to continue into next week, with temperatures above 40C possible in places.

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Canada’s 2023 wildfires released more greenhouse gases than most countries

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Had fires been ranked alongside countries they would have been world’s fourth-largest emitter, study finds

Wildfires that swept Canada’s woodlands last year released more greenhouse gases than some of the largest emitting countries, a study found on Wednesday, calling into question national emissions budgets that rely on forests as carbon stores.

At 647 megatonnes, the carbon released in last year’s wildfires exceeded those of seven of the 10 largest national emitters in 2022, including Germany, Japan and Russia, the study published in the journal Nature found.

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Brazil minister declares ‘war’ with fire as smoke cloaks Brasília and São Paulo

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Environment minister suggests criminal actions behind spike in wildfires closing schools and grounding flights

Brazil’s environment minister has declared her country “at war” with fire after a historic surge in blazes – from the depths of the Amazon to the rural south-east – cloaked Brasília and São Paulo with smoke, grounded flights and forced schools to close.

Speaking after an emergency meeting with the president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, on Sunday, Marina Silva called the sudden spike in wildfires in São Paulo state’s countryside “unusual” and said federal police were investigating the causes. Three people have been arrested.

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‘The new reality’: Athens wildfire victims vow to adapt and stay put

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People say they are determined and that prevention will be key to mitigating the effects of the climate crisis

“I used to talk to them every day.” Dimitris Petrou takes in the creatures that were once his fluffy chicks but now look like coals. The buckled cage with its carbonised birds is part of the cataclysmic scenery left behind by the fire that bore down on Athens after raging across the Attica plains consuming everything in its path.

The 72-year-old retiree and his wife, Frosso, though red-eyed and fatigued, are “somehow still going” but are profoundly shocked.

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Canada’s 2023 wildfires produced nearly a decade’s worth of blaze emissions

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Fires made at least three times more likely by climate crisis and emitted about 2bn tonnes of CO2, data reveals

Canada’s “record-shattering” wildfires last year produced nearly as much greenhouse gas emissions in one season as would be expected over a decade of fires in normal circumstances, data has shown.

The fires, in Canada’s “wildest season ever”, were made at least three times more likely by the climate crisis, and produced about 2bn tonnes of CO2, about a quarter of the total global emissions from wildfires last year, according to data in the State of Wildfires report, published on Wednesday.

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Greece takes stock of wildfires that raged through Athens suburbs

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Opposition and media turn on government as firefighters work to contain ‘scattered hotspots’

Greek authorities are continuing to battle scattered fires on the outskirts of Athens as officials take stock of the damage wreaked by a disaster that forced mass evacuations and killed at least one person.

On Tuesday, the third day of one of the worst wildfires in living memory, firefighters were helped by a drop in winds as they sought to contain the remnants of an inferno that had reached the capital’s northern suburbs and decimated homes and businesses.

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Greece orders evacuations near Athens as wildfires rage – Europe live

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An army of volunteers have also rushed to help extinguish raging blazes north east of Athens

AFP reports from Penteli:

Thick smoke from burning trees filled a small square in Penteli where local resident Mariana Papathanasi said they could only pray that their houses would be saved.

“There is still a strong fire. Some houses were burned after midnight and we are trying to protect our local restaurant,” the 49-year-old supermarket employee told AFP.

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