Dry start to 2009 sets U.S. record
The USA Today is reporting that the first two months of 2009 are the driest in the U.S. since the government has been keeping records. The article references wildfires several times. In part, it says:
So far this year, the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise has logged 11,814 wildfires, the most for any two-month period in a decade and almost 3,700 more than the average.
Wildland fire agencies and organizations using Twitter
Here is a list of some of the larger agencies and organizations that we are aware of that are heavily involved in wildfire and have Twitter accounts. If you know of others, let us know by leaving a comment.
- http://twitter.com/usfs_r5 –U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Region (California, Region 5)
- http://twitter.com/YosemiteNPS –Yosemite National Park, California
- http://twitter.com/cfpa –California Fire Photographers Association
- http://twitter.com/LAFD –Los Angeles City Fire Department
- http://twitter.com/USFWSPacific –U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Pacific Region
It seems like there should be a lot more. We did not drill down to the county and local level, except for LA City FD, which set the gold standard for fire Twittering a long time ago.
Many other organizations can be found in this “GovTwit Directory”
There are a lot of bloggers that are active on Twitter. FireGeezer has a series of posts about fire Twittering in general. He also has some basic information for anyone that is new to Twitter, or thinking about getting started.
And by the way, Wildfire Today’s Twitter account is http://twitter.com/wildfiretoday
Arkansas firefighters smarter than previously known, required training hours reduced
The Arkansas legislature is moving toward reducing the number of training hours required for their volunteer firefighters. House Bill 1666 reduces the introduction to firefighting and personal protective equipment course requirements from 16 hours to 12 hours. It also cuts in half the training hours for wildland fire suppression to four hours.
The bill has passed in the state House of Representative and has cleared a committee on the Senate side.
Aerial firefighting conferences
There are now two more conferences planned, following the one in California in February, and the one in Athens, Greece in 2008. The next one will be in Sydney, Australia, June 17, 2009. There is also one planned for Rome, Italy, in November of this year.
And speaking of aerial firefighting, don’t forget, Friday evening we will host a live discussion about Fire Aviation.
Thanks Dick
