Wisc. Man dies in debris fire
A 91 year old man died of burns that he suffered while tending a debris fire near Eau Pleine, Wisconsin on Monday. The Sheriff’s Department said the death appeared to be accidental. The victim had been tending a small burning pile of debris and had full body burns. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The fire department had responded to a report of a brush fire with a person who had serious burns at the scene. The fire escaped from the pile area, burning about 1.3 acres.
Multiple fires in Alberta
Multiple fires are burning in central Alberta, Canada. One fire in northern Strathcona County has burned about 3,000 acres and required 16 homeowners to evacuate, some of them for the second time in 24 hours. Officials there declared a state of emergency.
Activity at the Fort Huachuca air tanker base
The Sierra Vista Herald has an interesting article about activity at the Fort Huachuca air tanker base in southern Arizona.
Possible arson while Halifax fire was burning
Arson investigators are looking into the possiblity that an arsonist set fire to the interior of a house while the 1,000 acre wildfire near Halifax, Nova Scotia was burning on May 1. The house was near the main wildfire, but the it never burned closer than 30-50 feet of the structure. The damage to the house was limited to the interior.
The taxable assessment on the house is $419,200 and the owner borrowed $426,000 to purchase it in November, 2006. The house which sits on a hectare of land, suffered extensive interior damage but was not destroyed.
Preliminary report on P2V-7 air tanker crash
The National Transportation Safety Board has released a preliminary report on the crash of the P2V-7 air tanker that crashed in Utah on April 25 killing the 3 people on board. The brief report does not contain much new information. (The link to the report no longer works.)
Sayre fire residents moving back to mobile home park
The residents of the mobile home park where about 500 homes burned during November’s Sayre fire near Los Angeles were allowed for the first time on Monday to move back into the homes that were not damaged during the fire. The sites of the destroyed homes have been cleaned up, leaving mostly bare lots.