Wildfires
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Fire

"Mass casualty incident" declared as 3,500-acre California brush fire sets cars ablaze, engulfing freeway and homes

California brush fire
© Gene Blevins

A rapidly growing 3,500-acre brush fire near San Bernardino, California has blocked a freeway and set multiple cars on fire. Five homes have been burned and 50 are in danger, fire officials said.

The San Bernardino County Fire Department has declared a "mass casualty incident" and hundreds of firefighters have been dispatched to battle the blaze.


It's unclear how many may be injured, but the fire department stated that it is preparing to handle "multiple civilian burn victims."

A US Forest Service official told KLTA that two minor injuries have been reported.


Fire

Study: Wildfire seasons are more destructive and lasting longer almost everywhere on Earth

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Wildfires: bigger, more frequent, and happening everywhere
Wildfire seasons all over the planet are lasting longer than they have in the past and burning wider swaths of land, and Earth's changing climate is to blame, according to a new report.

Ecologist and fire scientist Matt Jolly and his colleagues say the average duration of annual wildfire seasons lengthened almost 20 percent between 1979 and 2013, and the amount of land vulnerable to burning almost doubled. The team published its results in the journal Nature Communications this week.

The phenomenon isn't just happening in areas such as the Western United States. Wildfires are burning for a longer period of time on every continent except Australia and Antarctica, the report said. Forests and grasslands in Africa are burning more, and the fire season in South American tropical forests is more than a month longer than it used to be.

Fires are also getting worse across the Eastern U.S. coastal plain, and they increased the most in the Northern Rocky Mountain region.

Comment: Sott.net's prediction: the upward trend in strength and frequency of wildfires will continue to increase. Why?

Increased methane outgassing provides lethal fuel for the fires, while the trigger or spark is the increase in atmospheric electric discharge events (including lightning)...

Things sure be heating up!

See also:

Infographic Displays Increase in Major US Wildfires Since 2001


Fire

Environment mirroring socio-economic chaos? Massive wildfire threatens Athens as Greece 'burns' under Austerity

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© Alkis Konstantinidis / Reuters
Smoke billows over the Greek capital as a large fire burns on a mountain east of the city, forcing residents to flee their homes.

A huge blaze on the east side of Athens is spreading quickly due to high temperatures and strong winds.

Dozens of firefighters with ten vehicles are trying to tackle the fire, which sent thick smoke billowing into the Greek capital's sky.

Water-dropping helicopters were also dispatched at the scene.

The Reuters news agency said residents were forced to flee their homes, but so far nobody has been reported injured.


Fire

Canadian wildfires out of control as super blaze hits Saskatchewan (VIDEO)

wildfires in Canada
Screenshot from YouTube.com video by Viala Nasum
Wildfires in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan have nearly doubled, following the merger of two separate blazes. The fires have been raging for almost two weeks, which has left tens of thousands of hectares of forest burning.

The Lac La Ronge, in Saskatchewan was like a sea of flames following the intense blazes, while the sounds of the wildfires could be heard from some distance away.


Fire

Tendril of wildfire smoke shows an incredible, twisty picture on satellite

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A view of two circulations in the upper level flow mixing with smoke from Canadian wildfires
The National Weather Service in Glasgow, Mont., shared this amazing satellite image of wildfire smoke that got caught in the upper-level winds over the northern U.S. and southern Canada today.

The tendril of smoke is highlighting two areas of spin in the winds — one just north of Montana and the other in western North Dakota — that we wouldn't be able to see on satellite if the air was clear. The smoke is so thick over these areas that it's actually casting a shadow on the ground.

On Friday, 31 significant wildfires were burning in Canada from British Columbia to Manitoba. Smoke from these large fires and dozens more in Alaska has been filtering down into the Lower 48 over the past month. Earlier this week, smoke had prompted air quality warnings in Minnesota and Colorado, and Minneapolis saw its worst air quality in over a decade.

Fire

'Unprecedented' wildfires force out 13,000 evacuees from Saskatchewan, Canada

wildfire at La Ronge airport
© Prince Albert Fire Department/TwitterThis was the situation at the La Ronge airport on the weekend.

Biggest ever exodus of its kind in Saskatchewan, Red Cross says


In what's being dubbed the biggest evacuation effort in Saskatchewan's history, Premier Brad Wall said the number of evacuees affected by raging wildfires in the province's northern regions is "unprecedented."

"This particular fire event is different for our province just because of the amount of hectares that are currently burning, which is, by the way, about 10 times the average year," Wall told reporters mid-afternoon on Monday.

Wall noted that the number of affected communities also "make this [situation] particularly unique and dangerous."

More than 13,000 people have been forced from their homes due to northern Saskatchewan blazes, according to Red Cross.

There were 112 fires burning in the province Monday, the Saskatchewan Environment Ministry said.

The escalating situation forced the Saskatchewan government to bring in a Sikorsky S-64 skycrane helicopter from Montana.


Comment: A couple of months ago two cold temperature records were broken in Saskatchewan, Canada.


Fire

Idaho governor declares disaster emergency due to fast-moving Cape Horn wildfire

wildfire cape horn idaho
Cape Horn Fire in Bayview, Idaho
A fast-moving wildfire in Idaho that destroyed several upscale homes and forced 200 residents to flee prompted the governor on Monday to declare a disaster emergency that would free up federal funds to help fight the blaze.

The Cape Horn fire has charred more than 2,000 acres (810 hectares) since breaking out on Sunday in a resort area in northern Idaho where there are clusters of multimillion-dollar homes on the banks of Lake Pend Oreille.

"We will continue to support the impacted jurisdictions in protecting lives, property and businesses," Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter said in issuing the declaration.

The Idaho fire was among nearly 40 large wildfires raging across the parched Western United States on Monday, including a blaze in Oregon that officials have deemed the biggest wildfire of the season for the U.S. Pacific Northwest.

Fire

So many fires are burning in Alaska the midwest is covered in smoke

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Smoke from the fires captured by NASA’s Aqua satellite on June 28
The drought hitting the West is not just striking the continental US. That same weather pattern that's sucking the life out of California is also making life hot, dry, and dangerous for the top third of North America: Alaska and Canada have seen little rainfall, soaring spring temperatures, and now, a record-breaking wildfire season.

The smoke drifting from hundreds of fires can be seen in new NASA imagery. It forms a plume that extends all the way down through the Midwest, reaching as far south as Texas today.

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Imagery captured June 29 from NASA’s Aqua satellite, which measures the ozone found in smoke
How many fires are we talking about? As many as 600. There are 297 fires actively burning just in Alaska today. That's so many fires, in fact, that it's hard to even tell where they all are on the state forestry department's map.

Comment: It's not global warming that we're seeing, but the effects of cosmic climate change and Earth changes on the way towards an ice age. See:


Fire

126 wildfires burn in Alberta: one of the worst wildfire seasons in the past 5 years

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© ReutersSmoke rises from a wildfire north of Cold Lake, Alberta in May 2015.
Alberta is the middle of one of the worst wildfire seasons in the past five years, say Alberta wildfire officials.

As of Sunday, 126 wildfires were burning in Alberta, with 27 of them considered out of control. In the past 24 hours, 23 new fires have emerged but Geoffrey Driscoll, a wildfire spokesperson with Alberta's ministry of agriculture and forestry, says that's just the tip of the iceberg,

"Before that, it was 45 (new fires) the day before, 55 the day before, and 73 the day before that - yesterday was a slow day," said Driscoll, citing extremely dry conditions in northern Alberta combined with high winds and flash thunderstorms as the prime contributors in this latest onslaught of wildfires.


"It's summer in Alberta, so what we're getting, as well, is these thunderstorms coming through with not very much rain. We would get somewhere between 10,000 to 20,000 lightning strikes a night, and we were getting a lot of wildfires coming from those."

Of the 23 new fires in the past 24 hours, 12 of them were ignited due to lightning strikes. So far this season, there have been 1,145 wildfires recorded in Alberta, spanning over 101,500 hectares of land, compared to the five-year average of 724 fires to date.

Fire

1,000 people flee their homes, 12 homes destroyed in Wenatchee wildfire, Washington

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© KING 5 NewsSleepy Hollow fire
At least a thousand people have fled their homes as a fast-growing wildfire burns out of control in central Washington.

All of north Wenatchee from Maple Street north to the river was evacuated Sunday night. The Chelan County Sheriff's Office says 12 homes have been destroyed.

Hundreds of firefighters from across Washington are on the scene and more are headed there.

Sunday's temperatures of at least 108 degrees, tinder dry brush and strong winds helped fuel the fire. Monday morning brought a brief rainshower which helped firefighters.

The fire was at least 2.6 square miles at last report. An update on the size is expected at 9 a.m.
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© king5.com