By Steve Gorman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – For residents of the scenic foothill communities above Los Angeles, chance encounters with deer, coyote and other wildlife are commonplace. The occasional bear or mountain lion will even wander into a backyard. They’re about to become more visible. As the threat to humans from the 10-day-old Station Fire […]
By MALCOLM BROWN WINTER fires burning on the South Coast yesterday, threatening property and forcing residents to prepare for evacuation, sounded a grim warning for the summer, the Minister for Emergency Services, Steve Whan, said. ”People at the Fire Control Centre have told me that they have not seen this type of fire behaviour at […]
Billions of beetles, wildfire spread imperil the northern forests of a warmer world By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special CorrespondentHAINES JUNCTION, Yukon Territory A veil of smoke settled over the forest in the shadow of the St. Elias Mountains, in a wilderness whose spruce trees stood tall and gray, a deathly gray even in the […]
By Mex Cooper The CFA chief heavily criticised for his handling of Black Saturday will be responsible for keeping Victoria safe as it faces its worst-ever fire season, Premier John Brumby has said. Mr Brumby warned Victorians that 13 years of drought will make the coming fire season, less than 10 weeks away, potentially […]
By Rick Jervis, USA TODAY GRANBURY, Texas — Firefighters assigned to the Texas Forest Service this year have grown accustomed to living away from wives and husbands, skipping family gatherings, missing anniversaries. PHOTOS: Texas battles wildfires They check in daily to the Forest Service’s command center in this north-central Texas town, no days off, waiting […]
By TANALEE SMITH, Associated Press Writer ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) — Sam the koala, who gained worldwide fame and sympathy when she was rescued during Australia’s devastating wildfires this year, was euthanized Thursday after a veterinarian found the cysts that threatened her life were inoperable. The 4-year-old koala had developed the cysts associated with urogenital chlamydiosis, […]
By BRETT FRENCHThe Billings Gazette As the climate warms over the next four decades, portions of Wyoming and Montana are at ground zero for larger areas burned by wildland fires and an increase in air pollution from those fires. The forecasts come from a recently released study done for the Environmental Protection Agency by Harvard’s […]
MELBOURNE, Feb 26 (AFP) Feb 26, 2009 – Hundreds of Australian schools and childcare centres will be closed Friday because of a resurgent threat from wildfires that have already killed more than 200 people, officials said. … Temperatures of 39 degrees Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit) are expected across the state on Friday, raising fears that […]
Black Saturday Recount By Ioan Thomas The fire that hit Victoria on “Black Saturday” was one that had never been seen in Australia before. Victoria had gone through “Ash Wednesday” in 1983 and “Black Friday” in 1939. Australia’s capital city, Canberra, was badly damaged in 2004 by bushfires, with over 500 houses destroyed and four […]
All signs point to the climate becoming more extreme by Marian Wilkinson and Ben Cubby When hundreds of small, grey-headed flying foxes began falling from the sky at Yarra Bend in suburban Melbourne, for some it heralded the awful events that would later unfold. It was Wednesday, January 28, one day into the ferocious heatwave […]
