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Thu, 22 Aug 2019
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Wildfires

Fire

US and Mexico offer assistance as Canada battles 63 forest fires in northern Ontario


CBC News
Sun, 22 Jul 2018 17:13 UTC
wildfires ontario July 2018
© Dr. Crayfish/Twitter
An environmental scientist who calls himself 'Dr. Crayfish' tweeted this photo of the scene from a boat in northern Ontario on Saturday. He wrote: 'Scary forest fires burning near Key River Ontario yesterday turned the sky orange!'

Crews fighting forest fires in northern Ontario are receiving help from other provinces, the U.S. and Mexico as they try to contain a cluster of blazes after days of hot and humid weather.

Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry said in a release that, as of Sunday afternoon, 63 forest fires were burning in the northern and northeastern parts of the province, with 28 of them out of control. The ministry said 35 fires are either being held or being observed.

Isabelle Chenard, a fire information officer for the ministry, says 775 fires have consumed 181,000 hectares of the province this year. That number has grown more than 75 per cent since this time last year, she explained.

Since Canada Day, Chenard says, a swath of fires have been started by lightning strikes.

"Several waves of lightning that have passed through the northeast side of the province with very little precipitation," she added.
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Fire

Sweden requests emergency assistance from EU to fight rapidly spreading, uncontrolled wildfires


The Local
Wed, 18 Jul 2018 17:13 UTC
forest fire Ljusdal Sweden
© Maja Suslin / TT / NTB Scanpix
A forest fire in Ljusdal in Sweden on Tuesday.
Dozens of forest wildfires raged across Sweden Wednesday, prompting Stockholm to ask for emergency EU help to fight the blazes, which broke out during an extreme heatwave in the Nordic region.

The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) said two Italian firefighting aircraft had been sent to assist in badly hit areas of central Sweden, while Norway had dispatched six helicopters.

Norway has suffered from considerable forest fires of its own over the last week, with wildfires in 100 locations in the south last week, some of which were triggered by lightning.

One Norwegian firefighter lost his life responding to the blazes while the country's Home Guard has also been deployed to relieve strained fire services.

But the many forest fires that raged across southern Norway in recent days, particularly on Saturday and Sunday, are now under control or completely extinguished, news agency NTB reported on Wednesday.

Despite that, the Home Guard is still assisting fire services in some areas, VG reports.

Comment: See also: Evacuations ordered in Sweden as wildfires rage as far north as Arctic Circle

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Fire

Evacuations ordered in Sweden as wildfires rage as far north as Arctic Circle

Laura Smith-Spark, Rory Smith and Gianluca Mezzofiore
CNN
Thu, 19 Jul 2018 11:39 UTC
Firefighters use a helicopter to tackle a forest fire Wednesday near Ljusdal in central Sweden.

Firefighters use a helicopter to tackle a forest fire Wednesday near Ljusdal in central Sweden.
Nearly 100 people were forced to leave their homes overnight in Sweden, emergency officials said Thursday, as dozens of forest fires rage across the country as far north as the Arctic Circle.

The worst-affected areas include Jämtland, Västerbotten, Gävleborg and Dalarna counties, where residents have been advised to evacuate a number of villages.

The Red Cross will start to coordinate volunteer efforts across the country, it said Thursday, after talks with the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency. The volunteers will help with evacuations, distribute essential supplies and give out information.

Sweden has been struggling to cope as unusually hot, dry conditions fuel more forest fires than the emergency services can handle.

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Fire

Wildfires rage for days following heatwave and drought on Bray Head, Ireland

Peter Murtagh
Irish Times
Tue, 17 Jul 2018 05:00 UTC
wildfire bray head ireland

The Air Corps dumped more than 150,000 litres of water on Bray Head during a two-day operation to stop a wildfire that devastated sections of the popular hiking trail.
As they returned to Bray Head in Co Wicklow to douse flaring embers and reassure worried residents, Greystones firefighters were on their 88th callout since the heatwave and drought conditions took hold more than a month ago.

"When you think that everything you own is going to go up in flames, it's pretty scary," said one resident, looking on as, for the umpteenth time since the blaze took hold last Friday, the part-time firefighters dropped what they were doing and rushed out to help.

The damage of the past four days could have been more severe had it not been for their hard work, and the foresight of Mark Kopik. The landowner, anticipating the inevitable, cut fire breaks through the gorse in the hope that if a fire broke out, he could slow its pace. The goal was achieved.

Nonetheless the strength of the fire, and particularly the strength of the south and southwest winds on Saturday, saw the blaze spread and devour virtually all the growth on the southern slope of Bray Head.

Comment: It seems the increasingly erratic weather patterns which brought a brutally cold and wet winter, followed by epic flooding in spring, is now bringing heatwave and drought conditions throughout Europe, and is contributing to a year on year increase in widlfires; that, and the erroneous environmentalism which has banned controlled fires:


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Fire

Stunning video of wildfire turning into huge firenado then into waterspout along Colorado River in California


wfla.com
Tue, 17 Jul 2018 14:15 UTC
wildfire
A video shows the moment a brush fire turned into a 'firenado' and then a waterspout on the Colorado River.

An Arizona couple was driving near the California-Arizona border Saturday and pulled over to watch a brush fire near the shore of the Colorado River.

The brush fire turned into a 'firenado' and then the winds moved over the river and formed a waterspout.

Jet skis and boats drove by the scary spectacle that looked like something from a Hollywood movie.


Comment: That's pretty clear-cut evidence that cyclonic winds are all essentially electrical in nature. Heat exchange plays a role, but more as a side-effect to the distribution of electric charge potential between mediums - ground-to-air, water-to-air, fire-to-air, whatever.

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Fire

Wildfire the size of 50 football pitches breaks out in "tinder dry" New Forest, UK


BBC
Tue, 17 Jul 2018 10:39 UTC
fire hampshire
© Hampshire Fire and Rescue
Gorse fire in Holbury, New Forest
Firefighters spent the night tackling a gorse fire across more than 85 acres of land in the New Forest.

The blaze, off Rollestone Road in Holbury, Hampshire, started shortly after midnight.

Station Manager Paul Reddish said: "It lit up the night sky - it was a challenge for the crews to get ahead of the fire and create some breaks."

At its height, 45 firefighters were sent to the blaze. The fire was put out by about 03:30 BST.

Mr Reddish said the prolonged heatwave conditions meant areas of the forest were "tinder dry".

Comment: Following a prolonged dry spell the UK has seen an unprecedented number of wildfires, some of an intensity not seen for decades - and the UK is not alone in seeing both extreme drought and epic flooding:

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Cloud Lightning

Lightning sets off over 100 forest fires in southern Norway

Nina Berglund
News in English.no
Thu, 12 Jul 2018 10:13 UTC
wildfire
© Tor Aage Hansen
More than 100 forest and brush fires were burning all over Southern Norway, some of them out of control, on Thursday afternoon and evening. Extremely dry conditions and strong winds were posing huge challenges for emergency crews.

State broadcaster NRK reported fires in the Agder counties, Telemark, Vestfold, Østfold, Buskerud, Hedmark and Oppland. NRK reported 15 fires in Østfold alone (the county just southeast of Oslo), five in Agder, at least seven in Telemark and 30 in Buskerud.

By Thursday evening the numbers had risen to more than 30 in Østfold, around 25 in Agder, around 50 in Telemark and 52 in Buskerud. A few others were burning out of control in Østre Toten.
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Fire

Wildfires continue to rage in UK with a new woodland blaze in Scotland


BBC
Tue, 10 Jul 2018 09:12 UTC
Fire crews tackle woodland blaze near Dalbeattie
© Solway Press Services
Fire crews tackle woodland blaze near Dalbeattie
Fire crews have spent several hours bringing a blaze under control in the south of Scotland countryside.

They were called out at about 17:30 on Monday to the incident between Southwick Forest and Edingham Farm, near Dalbeattie.

Comment: Back on 29th May three large wildfires broke out in different locations in Scotland, and since then there have been fires reported every day, all over the UK, but particularly the northern regions. The current fires are being blamed on the fact that it hasn't rained for over 50 days and its one of the longest - but not the hottest - heatwaves for over 40 years. So that still makes one wonder what contributed to the fires in Scotland which occurred well over a month ago.

Whether all these fires can be attributed solely to arson is still up for question, but regardless, this is highly unusual for the UK:


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Fire

California: Multiple wildfires and record-breaking heat

Carla Herreria
HuffPost
Sat, 07 Jul 2018 13:44 UTC
California wildfire
© Cal Fire/Cleveland National Forest
The Cleveland National Forest is located in California.

Wildfires burned through Southern and Central California on Friday, prompting mandatory evacuations as areas across the region experienced record-breaking heat. Wildfires burned through Southern and Central California on Friday, prompting mandatory evacuations as areas across the region experienced record-breaking heat.


Comment: It was hot, but maybe it was not record-breaking - at least perhaps not in Los Angeles. See: Faulty weather stations established the all-time record high temperatures for Los Angeles


Firefighters on Friday were battling blazes in Alpine, Dulzura and Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base in San Diego County, California, where the National Weather Service had issued an excessive heat warning until 9 p.m. A fire also broke out further north in the city of Goleta in Santa Barbara County later Friday night.

The wildfire in Alpine, known as the West Fire, started in the morning and spread to more than 400 acres by the afternoon, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, also known as Cal Fire.

Comment: Heat wave scorches US Midwest and East, wildfire warnings for Colorado and California

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Fire

Another fire scorches through moorland parched by heatwave in Bradford, UK

Andrew Bardsley
Machester Evening News
Sun, 08 Jul 2018 16:24 UTC
Another moor fire scorches through land parched by heatwave in Bradford, UK

BLAZE: A picture of the flames that have engulfed the moor.
A FIRE has broken out near Cullingworth Moor in Bradford. West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service says four fire engines are at the scene. The fire is reportedly on heathland between Harden and Cullingworth, known as Catstones Moor, according to a source.

Another source said: "I believe the fire is between Cullingworth, Ryecroft and The Guide Inn, at Hainworth Shaw, Keighley." One onlooker could see smoke building on the moor, from the nearby Cullingworth Gala.

Fearne Grist said: "The flames are spreading bad." Sulley Baynham said: "It's now spreading across and lighting the woodland, so potentially could become alot bigger especially as it nears the St Ives woodland estate. He added: "There's limited access for fire crews due to the location."

Comment: The ignition of the unprecedented number of fires in the UK has been speculated to be arson or carelessness, but there may be other factors not yet considered. What is clear is that after the UK's brutally cold winter followed by an unusually, unsettled spring, summer too is proving to be much hotter and drier than would be considered normal. And these erratic weather patterns are wreaking havoc across the planet:

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