A fire east of Québec in Newfoundland and Labrador has burned more than 24,000 acres and forced thousands to evacuate Labrador City. CNN reported that the “extremely aggressive inferno” was considered contained earlier this week, but weather changes on Friday blew the fire back to life and it spread rapidly. Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador Andrew Furey said Saturday the fire had grown to 22,000 acres and had spread 13 miles in about four hours.
In a news conference on Sunday, Furey said weather conditions are favourable for firefighting. “We have some good news today. There is no significant growth in the size of the fire that is just northwest of Lab City,” he told reporters. The fire has burned through about 14,000 hectares (about 35,000 acres) to within four kilometres of the community — the same as Saturday.
Newfoundland and Labrador fires, ESRI map
Light rain, lower temperature and humidity, and northeast winds has kept the fire away from the town and burning onto itself.
Four water bombers are fighting on the eastern front of the fire. Six to eight are fighting on the western side from Quebec.
Around 9,500 people were evacuated from Labrador City, said Jeremy Reynolds with the provincial government. “A contingent of essential personnel have remained behind to oversee the emergency response,” he said.
The remoted town of Labrador City, in the northwestern part of the province, is about 900 miles north of Canada’s capital city of Ottawa.
A province-wide outdoor fire ban prohibiting setting of fires on forest land or within 300 metres of forest land is now in effect in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Significant firefighting resources are currently dedicated to wildfire suppression near the communities of Labrador West.
Updates on the location, status, and size of active fires can be viewed online at the NL Active Wildfire Dashboard.
Labrador City fires
Residents were told to evacuate to the Town of Happy Valley-Goose Bay – a six-hour drive away.
A new wildfire near the small Malheur County town of Brogan grew quickly to over 20,000 acres by Thursday evening, prompting closure of a 23-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 26 in eastern Oregon and evacuation alerts, along with call-up of two state structural-protection task forces, authorities said.
It’s burning on private and public lands 9 miles east of Ironside, and by this afternoon it was pushing 75,000 acres.
The Cow Valley Fire burned to about 20,000 acres Thursday, on both sides of U.S. Highway 26
KTVB-TV reported that crews are battling two fires near U.S. Highway 26 in eastern Oregon. The Cow Valley Fire and the Bonita Road Fire both started early Thursday morning.
Others include the nearly 14,000-acre Larch Creek Fire south of The Dalles in Wasco County, which is still without any containment, and the nearly 4,000-acre Salt Creek Fire in Jackson County, about 16 percent contained.
The Larch Creek Fire grew from just 100 acres Tuesday afternoon, overnight and the next day, and by Wednesday night it was pushing 11,000 acres, according to the Oregon Department of Forestry. Zach Urness with the Statesman-Journal reported that the fire was at 13,816 acres Friday morning after more than 3,000 acres of growth overnight. The fire remains at zero percent containment, and Highway 216 east remains closed between milepost 1 and 4.
Thursday afternoon brought windy conditions to the area but fire behavior moderated overnight with lower temperatures and winds. Overnight crews worked closer to the active areas, building line and securing perimeters around Shadybrook Road and Highway 216.
“Today, air and ground crews will be active on all sides of the fire, building fire line, reinforcing existing line, and monitoring for hot spots. Structure protection will be focused on the community of Tygh Valley, Pine Hollow and Shadybrook subdivisions, and along Highway 216,
The Wasco County Sheriff’s Office has issued a Level 3 “Go Now!” evacuation order from Friend Road, East to Elliott Road and Highway 197, South to Badger Creek Road, West to McCorkle Grade Road.
Residents of at least 41 homes were advised to evacuate. Several other areas are under Level 2 and Level 1 evacuation orders.
Early afternoon Friday Vale District BLM said the Cow Valley Fire had burned over 73,720 acres. ODOT shared photos on TripCheck of the Cow Valley Fire yesterday.
KTVB in Boise reported 30-50 homes in Brogan are threatened, and power was shut down for customers at risk from powerlines close to the fire.
It was one of three large new area fires, along with the 4,500-acre Huntington Mutual Aid Fire in Baker County, which forced evacuations and alerts in the Huntington area and Farewell Bend State Park, and the 1,867-acre Bonita Road Fire, also in Malheur County, reported early Thursday morning.
The fire is moving toward Malheur Reservoir and is threatening 30 to 50 homes in the Brogan community. Malheur County Sheriff’s Office is advising residents to prepare for evacuation orders. At one point, 16 aircraft were assigned to the fire, dropping water and retardant, along with seven engines and four dozers plus crews from Vale and Burnt River RFPAs and Sand Hollow Fire District.
Australia’s National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee (NAIDOC) Week started on July 7 with a commitment from bushfire researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Canberra City.
The university has previously published numerous articles of landmark research on bushfires, including creating the world’s first extreme bushfire warning system, developing the first fire-retardant paint that passes the stringent BAL-40 test, and studying the long-lasting impacts of Australia’s “Black Summer” Bushfires.
University researchers have made a new commitment to future bushfire projects, vowing to incorporate more Indigenous practices.
“UNSW Canberra researchers are working to better incorporate Indigenous practices and understandings of fire in bushfire management, to better prepare for an increasingly uncertain future thanks to climate change,” a press release from the university said.
Similar to the practices of various Native American tribes, fire played an intrinsic role in the lives of Australia’s Indigenous communities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples for countless generations, and is still in use today.
Small controlled fires help them hunt, clear pathways through bush, and regenerate vegetation, according to The Nature Conservancy. “Cool Burns” have recently made a comeback after centuries of Euro-Australian suppression diminished the practice, caused by early colonizers’ view of fire as only a threat rather than a land-management practice. The loss of managed fire on Australia’s landscape, along with climate change, is a direct contributor to the severe bushfires that have burned the country since.
UNSW Bushfire Director Jason Sharples, a member of the Aboriginal Bundjalung people, said Indigenous fire knowledge adds needed depth to modern bushfire research.
“Local Indigenous people would know the land was ready for a burn when certain environmental indicators aligned, for example, when wattle flowers fell and when certain cloud formations were observed over prominent mountains,” Sharples said.
“Essentially, Country told them the right time to burn, and the people would offer fire as a gift back to Country. From a Western scientific perspective, this aligns with selecting the correct season based on the native flora, and only burning on a day when temperature and relative humidity conditions are within an acceptable range, as indicated by the cloud formations.”
UNSW is already working on two projects with the commitment to Indigenous practices in mind. One of the projects is studying how ridgelines, which correspond closely with Indigenous Songlines, cause unique wind patterns and influence fire spread. The other project compares modern bushfire regimes in southeast Australia with traditional fire regimes, Indigenous calendars, and cultural fire lore to better understand how climate change will affect future bushfires.
The university’s commitment pairs well with this year’s NAIDOC theme: “Keep the Fire Burning! Blak, Loud and Proud.” The theme conveys the strength and vitality of the nation’s Indigenous cultures which have stayed alive for generations despite historic and ongoing oppression and persecution.
“NAIDOC Week is a good opportunity to remind ourselves of the importance of promoting the cultural practices and learnings of Indigenous Australians and this will remain central to the work we do within UNSW Bushfire,” Sharples said.
More than 1,200 forest fires burned this year in Uttarakhand and claimed the lives of at least ten people, including some forest guards. In response, state officials have orchestrated a statewide campaign against pine tree litter, called “Pirul Lao-Praise Pao,” or “Bring Pine Litter, Take Away Money.” The program incentivizes locals to collect piles of pine needles that litter the state’s forest floor. Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami even recorded himself scraping up pine needles to promote the program.
“Under the campaign ‘Pirul Lao-Paise Pao,’ a large number of people are collecting pine needles and selling it to the government at the rate of ₹ 50/kg,” (about 60¢ USD per 2.2 lbs.) Dhami said. “At present, due to this campaign, the incidents of forest fire have reduced significantly and the villagers living near the forest area are also earning income.”
In May, the Uttarakhand government suspended 10 frontline Forest Department employees as nearly 1,350 hectares (3,336 acres) of Himalayan hills remained burning for nearly a month. The decision to suspend the forest guards and foresters followed an emergency meeting of senior government officials with Chief Minister Dhami. He postponed his scheduled engagements to chair the meeting with the Forest Department officials.
“Ten employees have been suspended in different areas,” he said, “five were attached to the forest headquarters and two were issued showcause notices for dereliction of duty leading to massive fire incidents since April 1.”
Trivendra Singh Rawat was the first Chief Minister in the state to start a pine needle collection program by linking it to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) after coming to power in 2017, according to the Statesman.
“Around 25 lakh (~2.5 million) metric tonnes of pine needles are produced annually in the state,” Rawat said. Researchers at India’s Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering found that pine needles, if heated with an absence of oxygen through pyrolysis, could be converted into a bio-oil and used in blended fuels. Rawat estimates that volume of pine needles could generate nearly 200 MW of power.
Experts, however, say the state’s narrative focus on pine needles as the cause of wildfires misses the mark because pine duff is an easy scapegoat for government officials to focus on rather than the more systemic issues of inadequate forest staff, drought, and a widespread absence of fire breaks.
“One could argue this campaign was the government’s attempt to pivot the blame away from grim ground realities and solely toward these aged pine trees,” Joshi wrote. He said, instead of addressing all these issues together, the Uttarakhand government’s decision to “villainize” one species is a myopic strategy and will prove to be detrimental in the long term. Pine is just one conifer standing among many other species on the Himalayan slopes. Focusing solely on pine shows the government’s misunderstanding of the larger Himalayan ecosystem and is leading to unsustainable solutions to the forest fire issue.
Pine trees have made up an integral part of India’s mountain forest cover since the Himalayas first formed. Collection of pine needles alone won’t be enough to control forest fires, experts told Joshi. Instead, the state should create a more holistic approach that addresses the human causes of forest fires.
Record-breaking wildfires between January and June burned an ecological foothold — and biodiversity haven — spanning across Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay this year, just four years after similar fires burned 13,300 acres of the preserve.
The Pantanal is considered the world’s largest tropical wetland area, the world’s largest flooded grasslands, and one of the most important areas of freshwater in the world.
NASA captured some of the intense fires’ burn scars in satellite imagery.
“Fire season in southern Brazil usually starts in July and peaks in August and September,” NASA said. “The false-color images emphasize the burn scars (brown) from several of the fires. Unburned vegetation is green. Near- and short-wave infrared bands help penetrate some of the smoke to reveal the hot spots associated with active fires, which appear orange.”
Pantanal fires June 2024
The repeated fires have left the environment in a state of constant recovery — and nearby communities are struggling.
“We were just trying to recover from the 2020 fire, which devastated our Pantanal. We had not fully recovered and now we are facing this again,” said a volunteer firefighter with the Baia Negra Environmental Protection Area’s Association of Women Producers.
A recent report from MapBiomas Brazil, a collaborative initiative including NGOs, universities, and technology companies, sheds light on a major cause of the fires: surface water loss.
Edge effects on the native vegetation and continuous habitat — including exposure to wind and solar radiation, susceptibility to fire, increased predation rates, and
The Pantanal is the biome in Brazil that has dried up the most between 1985 and 2023. The report said annual water surface for the area last year was just under 944,000 acres — only 2 percent of the wetland biome was covered by water. The total is reportedly 61 percent under the historical average. The area was 50 percent drier in 2023 than it was in 2018 when the area’s last major flood happened.
“In 2024, we didn’t have a flood peak,” said Eduardo Rosa with MapBiomas. “The year has seen a peak drought, which should last until September. The Pantanal in extreme drought is already facing fires that are difficult to control.”
The report also found that the entire Amazon region suffered a severe drought with a decrease of 8.2 million acres of water surface.
Up to 25% of Brazil’s native vegetation may be degraded
A new platform from the MapBiomas network shows that between 1986 and 2021 Brazil had between 11 and 25 percent of its native vegetation susceptible to degradation. This corresponds to an area ranging from 60.3 million hectares to 135 million hectares.
Visualized fire effects over 7 years, resulting from a single burn or multiple burns.
About 64 percent of Brazil — more than half the country — is covered by native vegetation. The beta version of MapBiomas’ degradation vectors platform makes it possible to generate unprecedented scenarios of the impact of factors that can cause degradation on native vegetation across Brazil.
“This is the first time that degradation can be assessed in a broader way and in all Brazilian biomes,” says Tasso Azevedo, general coordinator of MapBiomas. “But we know that this degradation process occurs in other types of cover, such as agriculture and pasture, as well as soils and water, where we also intend to advance with this information in MapBiomas in the coming years.”
➤ View the main highlights [PDF] of the Degradation module
The degradation vectors considered by the MapBiomas team in this first edition of the platform include the size and isolation of the native vegetation fragments, their edge areas, the frequency of fire and the time since the last burn, as well as the age of the secondary vegetation.
Pantanal: fire as a factor in degradation
In the Pantanal, the degraded area can vary from 800,000 hectares (6.8 percent) to 2.1 million hectares (almost 19 percent). Although it is a biome that coexists with fire, the incidence of fires in the last five years has meant that 9 percent of the Pantanal’s forest formations, which are fire-sensitive areas, have been damaged.
Eduardo Rosa with the MapBiomas’ Pantanal team says some of the vectors of degradation in the Pantanal beyond this analysis must consider the entire biome’s surroundings, since all the rivers that naturally irrigate the Pantanal plain are born in plateau areas. “The removal of native vegetation for agricultural and livestock expansion unprotects the soil and interferes with the distribution of water and sediment. The quantity and quality of water that reaches the plains also depends on dams and hydroelectric plants that alter the natural flow of water,” he says. “Climate issues relating to rainfall and temperature regulate droughts and floods, and the increase in periods of drought has hampered the resilience of the Pantanal ecosystem.”
A little note and a little request — by Patrick Carnahan
~~ July 5, 2014
Still can’t believe we are only hours away from marking the 20-year anniversary of the fire on Storm King Mountain. I’m now 12 miles away from the parking lot I was in when Paul Harvey told us we’d just lost 14 firefighters on the mountain.
Patrick Carnahan photo
Our strike team had orders to go to that fire and we got stopped leaving camp and re-routed to another fire. We drove 3 times as long to fight another fire as it would’ve taken us to be on the South Canyon Fire. We reached our assignment just as the flames were crossing the road into a remote community and we fought fire for the next 14 hours. Lost a wooden deck but no structures.
I remember everything in sight that night was on fire; it looked like hell, and there was no place else any of us would choose to be. Had about 4 hours of sleep and the first hot meal in 6 days when we got the news. Nobody really said anything at the time. We all understood we should’ve been on that mountain. Spent the next 5 days in a haze of smoke and flames before we were demobed. I have lost a couple of friends since then and many more I never had the opportunity to share the line with. Glad that the ignorance of youth was not wasted on me and I’m still here.
Asking that you all take a moment out of your day tomorrow and recognize those who never came off the line. Fire will always be a part of our reality and it will never be a job free of risk. When the next report hits the news about a wildland firefighter losing his or her life on a fire, please go here and make a difference: The Wildland Firefighter Foundation.
Keep one foot in the black and stay safe out there. For those who have gone on, save me some line to work when the time comes.
P.C.
And a revisit from a few years ago of one of Bill Gabbert’s best pieces:
