Wildfires
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Fire

Santa Barbara fire burns 4,200 acres, threatens thousands of homes

santa barbara fire
© Noah Berger/APA helicopter drops water on the Cave Fire burning in the Los Padres National Forest above Santa Barbara, Calif., on Tuesday.
A brush fire that broke out in Santa Barbara County, California, on Monday had grown to over 4,200 acres by late Tuesday morning after winds fueled the flames throughout the night.

The Cave Fire, as it has been named, started out in the Los Padres National Forest and swept over parts of Highway 154 near Santa Barbara's city limits, forcing officials to shut down the highway until further notice.

Firefighters were unable to contain the blaze as of Tuesday afternoon, officials said at an afternoon press conference.

Thousands of people had to evacuate their homes just days before the Thanksgiving holiday.

An incoming winter storm, expected to hit this part of Southern California late Tuesday night and last to Thursday, may help firefighters rein in the blaze.

Fire

Too much fuel causes extreme bush fires, not climate change

bushfire_sydney
Flames bear down on Harrington, some 335kms northeast of Sydney, 8 Nov 2019
What was Australia's Environment Minister thinking?

Melissa Price succumbs to pagan witchcraft:
"There's no doubt that there's many people who have suffered over this summer. We talk about the Victorian bushfires; (in) my home state of Western Australia we've also got fires there," [Melissa Price] told Sky News this morning. "There's no doubt that climate change is having an impact on us. There's no denying that."
Let's look at her home state. After 67 years of fire management in the giant, hot, dry state of WA, the trend is clear — the more prescribed area we burn, the less wildfire does. In the graph below the prescribed burns declined for forty years and wildfires increased for thirty. After the Dwellingup Fire in 1961 the state ramped up the preventative burns, and reduced wildfires.

As the BushFireFront team say:

"We can't control the weather but we can control the fuel loads"

Tough call — what do we do, redesign our energy system, pay billions, change our cars, our houses and our light globes in the hope that bush fires will be nicer, or do we just go back to doing what we used to do that worked?

Australia bushfire data
© Jo Nova

Comment: 'Uncharted territory': Out-of-control bushfires rage across Australia's eastern regions

Meanwhile Sydney is facing a 'catastrophic' threat as the Australian state declares a wildfire emergency.


NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said 'It's going to be a long, difficult fire season,' adding about a million hectares of land had already been scorched in the biggest firefront ever recorded in Australia.


Fire

'Uncharted territory': Out-of-control bushfires rage across Australia's eastern regions

bushfire_sydney
Flames bear down on Harrington, some 335kms northeast of Sydney, 8 Nov 2019
Australia's east is being ravaged by a record number of intense bushfires in a dramatic start to the country's fire season, with scientists warning of worse to come.

More than 100 blazes were registered in the states of Queensland and New South Wales on Friday, with 17 fires in the latter state being described at one point as out of control and dangerous amid high temperatures and gusty winds.

"We are in uncharted territory," New South Wales Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told public broadcaster ABC. "We have never seen this many fires concurrently at emergency warning level."



Comment: Poor koalas. Humans too: 3 dead and 4 missing so far. November is Australia's 'May', so their summer hasn't even officially begun, yet the sky looks like this:

bushfires australia sky red



Fire

Hundreds of koalas feared dead as lightning sparks wildfire in Australia

Conservationists fear hundreds of koalas have perished in wildfires
© Rob Griffith/APConservationists fear hundreds of koalas have perished in wildfires that have razed prime habitat on Australia’s east coast.
Hundreds of koalas are feared dead after wildfires ravaged Australia's east coast.

Some 2,000 hectares of land were burned through in the blaze, around two-thirds of which was koala habitat.

The fire was started by a lightning strike on Friday near Port Macquarie, New South Wales.

Sue Ashton, who runs Port Macquarie Koala Hospital, said there was little optimism about the consequences of the fire.

"If we look at a 50% survival rate, that's around 350 koalas and that's absolutely devastating," she said.

"We're hoping it's not as bad as that, but because of the intensity of the fire and the way koalas behave during fire, we're not holding out too much hope."

She said the search for survivors would begin on Thursday.

Fire

Bushfires continue to rage in New South Wales and Queensland, Australia

Firefighters battle an out of control bushfire on the Lakes Way, Darawank, near Forster on the NSW mid north coast.
© Nathan EdwardsFirefighters battle an out of control bushfire on the Lakes Way, Darawank, near Forster on the NSW mid north coast.
At least one home has been lost after multiple bushfires threatened towns on the New South Wales mid-north coast.

The bushfire is easing NSW but it could be a torrid day in Queensland which is still seeing torrid conditions.

One blaze west of Tuncurry, near Forster, jumped a river on Saturday and began spotting across the township that is home to 6000 people.

Less than 10 kilometres further north, another blaze led to emergency warnings for Hallidays Point and Darawank.

Both fires were being fanned north overnight.


Fire

3 die in Mexico's Baja California wildfires

A wildfire burns yesterday in Tijuana
A wildfire burns yesterday in Tijuana
Mexican authorities say three people have died in wind-whipped wildfires in the northwestern state of Baja California.

Mexico's civil defense agency said Friday that fires near Tecate, near Tijuana and between the coastal towns of Rosarito and Ensenada had forced 1,645 people to evacuate their homes.

One of the fires closed the coastal highway north of Ensenada for several hours. Another, near Tecate, burned more than 35,000 acres (about 14,200 hectares).


Fire

California wildfires ravage state: 2 million face blackouts - 100,000 people ordered to evacuate

The Kincade fire consumed homes in Geyserville, California
© Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesThe Kincade fire consumed homes in Geyserville, California.
Power cuts expected to affect more than two million people have begun in California as fires continue to surge.

Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) initiated the precautionary blackout - expected to be the largest in state history - due to forecasts of extreme winds, which it said could damage facilities and cause new fires.

California Governor Gavin Newsom said the outages were "unacceptable".

Some 90,000 people have been ordered to evacuate towns in northern California.

The new evacuation order encompasses a huge area of Sonoma County, where the Kincade Fire has already burned through 25,455 acres (10,300 hectares) of land.

A state of emergency has been declared in Los Angeles and Sonoma counties, and thousands of firefighters are battling the blazes.


Comment: Tens of thousands evacuated as 70mph winds fuel California wildfires


Fire

Ice Age Farmer Report: California burning - From PG&E's ashes arise "Smart" MicroGrids (& coming to you)

Kincade
© Reuters / Stephen LamA structure burns during the Kincade fire in northern California, October 24, 2019.
Wildfires rage across California, including the Kincade fire, where PG&E has admitted a fault in energized transmission lines. Nightmarish fire conditions exist with stronger winds yet on the way, and a deeper agenda is at play as municipalities look to "MicroGrids" to save them -- this "smartgrid," "renewable" phoenix to rise from the literal ashes of PG&E is actually a mechanism of your enslavement. Christian breaks it down.


Sources

Fire

Tens of thousands evacuated as 70mph winds fuel California wildfires

Kincade
© Reuters / Stephen LamA structure burns during the Kincade fire in northern California, October 24, 2019.
Over 52,000 people have been ordered to leave their homes as rapidly spreading brush fires fanned by strong gusts scorch towns across California, leaving dozens of houses in ruins.

Quickly consuming nearly 16,000 acres in Sonoma County since starting late Wednesday night, one of the fires has chased 2,000 residents from their homes as emergency responders struggle to hold back the flames.

Facing up to 70-mph winds, however, firefighters have only managed to contain about five percent of the blaze, according to Cal Fire. So far, nearly 50 structures have been lost.

Comment: See also: And check out SOTT radio's NewsReal: California Wildfires, Climate Change, And The Impossible Brexit where the possible causes and antagonists of last years wildfires are discussed.


Fire

Wildfires spreading through parts of Lebanon, Syria

wildfires lebanon burned cars October 2019
Strong fires spread in different parts of Lebanon forcing some residents to flee their homes in middle of the night as the flames reached residential areas in villages south of Beirut in October 2019.
Wildfires spread through parts of Lebanon on Tuesday after forcing some residents to flee their homes in the middle of the night, while others were stuck inside as the flames reached villages south of Beirut, authorities said.

A heat wave in the region coupled with strong winds intensified the fires that began a day earlier in mostly pine forests around the country and three provinces in neighboring Syria. There were no reports of fatalities from the fires — among the worst to hit Lebanon in years.

Fire crews were overwhelmed by the flames in the Mount Lebanon region early Tuesday, forcing the Interior Ministry to send riot police with engines equipped with water cannons to help. Two small aircraft were sent from the nearby Mediterranean island of Cyprus to help put out the flames.

Comment: Lebanon battles worst wildfires in decades - 100 fires break out in 24 hours