Wildfire / Forest Fire / Brush Fire No Matter What It's Called It Can Be Prevented 9 out of 10 Times

Botetourt County brush fire destroys 5 acres of fields

By Tiffany Stevens tiffany.stevens@roanoke.com 981-3349

 More than 30 firefighters and volunteers with Botetourt County Fire-EMS worked Saturday afternoon to put out a brush fire that destroyed 5 acres of fields, officials said.

Deputy Chief David Firestone said investigators suspect the brush fire was caused by ashes from a stove someone was using on Springwood Road about 2:30 p.m. Firefighters cleared the scene around 4:30 p.m.

No injuries were reported from the fire, but one small building was destroyed. A damage estimate was not immediately available.

 

 

 

 

 

Man Fleeing Police Drives On Rims, Sparks Brush Fire Near Castle Rock

CASTLE ROCK, Colo. (CBS4) – A brush fire was started by a suspected drunk driver who crashed into four cars during a police chase on Friday night.

  

 

 

 

 

Wildfire prompts mandatory evacuations of NorCal towns

Vegetation fire has grown to 50 acres

 

SWALL MEADOWS, Calif. —Fire officials say 40 homes have been destroyed in a wind-driven wildfire that has charred more than 10 square miles of timber and brush near two small Central California towns at the Nevada state line.

Cal Fire Capt. Liz Brown said Saturday that the blaze on the border of Inyo and Mono counties is 30 percent contained.

Brown says flames fanned by sustained winds up to 75 mph whipped through wooded areas near Town of Paradise and Swall Meadows Friday night. She says 40 residences and several outbuildings were destroyed.

A firefighter was treated for smoke inhalation.

Dying winds and rain helped crews stop the growth of the fire.

A few dozen people remained under evacuation orders Saturday afternoon.

The cause of the fire was under investigation.

 

Progress made on California wildfire that destroyed 40 homes

SWALL MEADOWS, Calif. (AP) - Firefighters have gained the upper hand on a wind-driven wildfire that destroyed 40 homes, burned nearly 11 square miles and forced about 150 people to leave two small California towns at the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada.

 

 

 

 

  While I DON'T disagree with many of the comments this story

 and the many like it have to say what I do DISAGREE with

is .... One size, one shoe, one solution DOES NOT FIT every

situation all across this nation AND where is the discussion

 about PREVENTION. Have the media,  the resource

managers, the so called experts  and the public been so

brainwashed to the discussion that fire is necessary for forest

health and public safety that they have totally disregarded the

 SMOKEY BEAR Messages and facts that unwanted human

 caused fire in the wrong place at the wrong time is damaging

 and can be disastrous??  FXT

 

 

Wildfire-Prone Areas Need to Learn to Live With Flames, Experts Say

BY MIGUEL LLANOS

 "Few tackle the difficult land-use issue of where and how humans choose to build their communities," the researchers wrote. Instead, they say, existing land-use policies and the focus on fighting fires encourage development in naturally hazardous areas, amplifying economic and human losses over time.

In the U.S., California has taken the lead in dealing with wildfires but "there's more to be done," says Moritz, a fire research scientist at the University of California, Berkeley.

Over the last decade, the state has developed tougher building standards and even mapped "fire hazard severity zones," but it still doesn't plan for wildfires the way it does for earthquakes, for example by limiting development in some areas, Moritz says.

"We don’t try to ‘fight’ earthquakes –- we anticipate them in the way we plan communities, build buildings and prepare for emergencies," Moritz said in a statement issued with the review. "We don’t think that way about fire, but our review indicates that we should."

California has led the way by incorporating wildfire into hazard assessment, agrees Vivian Kahn, who worked in land-use planning both at the city and state level in California.

This year, she said, California enacted a law requiring that every city and county add to its land-use planning the threat of wildfires and specifying what issues need to be addressed on lands deemed "very high fire hazard".