Estes Park Trail-Gazette, Colo. (TNS) Apr. 27—Colorado faces a "new normal" when it comes to wildfire. Ongoing drought and warmer temperatures elevate wildfire risk for many Coloradans, and wildfires now occur year-round in the state. To encourage more residents to...
Human Factors in the Wildland Urban Interface
By Thomas W. Aurnhammer Although safety is always a major concern in structural and wildland firefighting, the wildland community took a unique approach to the subject and started examining the human dimensions of wildland firefighting. The emphasis was on the people,...
New Service Allows Wildfires in WV to Be Tracked Online
Charles Boothe - Bluefield Daily Telegraph, W.Va. Apr. 14—A new service by the West Virginia Division of Forestry will allow residents to access a website to find and keep up with any forest fires across the state. Gov. Jim Justice made the announcement during his...
The West’s Forests Increasingly Struggle to Recover From Wildfires – Altering How Fires Burn Could Boost Their Chances
Kimberley Davis United States Forest Service Guidelines on use of articles from The Conversation can be found at http://bit.ly/TCUSinfo or contact us-republish@theconversation.com. Images, graphics and shortened text may also be available from The Conversation. (The...
‘Constant Vigil.’ Los Padres (CA) Forest Lookouts Watched Out for Wildfires in 1950s
David Middlecamp - The Tribune (San Luis Obispo, Calif.) (TNS) Mar. 18—In the era before smartphones and thermal satellite imagery, a fire lookout was the foremost wildfire warning system. Perched in towers on the highest peaks of Los Padres National Forest, lookouts...
CA Evaluates Canadian ‘Water Cannon’ Technology to Protect Towns from Wildland Fires
Fire & Flood Emergency Services, a Canadian firm, recently deployed its Water Cannon technology at a California winery to show how it can protect towns from approaching wildland fires. The system creates a wall of water to stop advancing flames, and provides...
2021 CO Marshall Fire Losses Topped $2 Billion
DENVER (AP) — A wildfire that destroyed nearly 1,100 homes and businesses in suburban Denver last winter caused more than $2 billion in losses, making it by far the costliest in Colorado history, the state insurance commissioner said. Commissioner Michael Conway...
Hellish Fires, Low Pay, Trauma: CA Forest Service Firefighters Face a Morale Crisis
Alex Wigglesworth - Los Angeles Times Chris Mariano became a federal wildland firefighter because he wanted to help protect the Northern California landscapes and communities he'd grown to love. Years later, after working his way up to squad boss of the...
‘Unrelenting’ Fire Seasons Putting New Mental Strain on Crews That Fight Fires
Rick Hurd - Bay Area News Group Firefighter Chuck Stark summed up life in the 2020s for crews at the Contra Costa Fire Protection District and throughout the state: “If I could describe it in one word: Unrelenting,” he said. “There used to be an ebb and a flow to...
Wildland Firefighting School Gives Students Real-World Deel for Demands of Battling Wildfires
O'Dell Isaac The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.) Mar. 25—Instructors at the Colorado Wildland Fire and Incident Management Academy took advantage of mild Friday temperatures with an outdoor field day at the campus of University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. The...