Workers forced to risk health during active wildfires, study finds

Research is questioning the ability of California’s Sonoma County to allow its workers to continue to work in its wine and agricultural industries in evacuated areas during disasters such as wildfires at great risk to their personal health.

Many farm workers in Sonoma County face pressures to work during active wildfire conditions and have suffered adverse health effects, according to a UC Berkeley study published in the Journal of Agromedicine on Oct. 20.

Hundreds of workers, most of whom lack health insurance, told researchers in a survey that they didn’t have a choice because they feared being fired if they didn’t work and that they needed money to cover basic needs such as housing and groceries. More than one-third of workers said their employers did not provide them with personal protective equipment, such as N95 respirators, during the hazardous conditions.

The study is the latest to cast doubt on the effectiveness of Sonoma County’s “Ag Pass” program, which allows farm bosses to continue worker harvests in active disaster evacuation zones, if approved by local deputies.

“We identified various gaps in the development and implementation of the Ag Pass that have implications for the health of farmworkers who may work inside fire evacuation zones under this program,” the researchers said. “This research also highlights the severe economic pressure many farmworkers face to continue working in potentially hazardous conditions due to fear of retaliation and the inability to pay for basic needs without wage replacement, underscoring the need for economic models such as comprehensive disaster pay and unemployment insurance, including for noncitizens.”

A separate study, published in 2024 by researchers from the University of California – Irvine and the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, also questioned the county’s program and came to a similar conclusion.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: California put wine industry profits above farmworker safety during 2020 wildfires, study finds

That study found 96 Ag Pass program applications were submitted during 2020’s destructive Glass Fire, including 120 worksites and 633 workers. Another 370 permits were submitted during the LNU Lightning Complex that same year, which included 590 worksites and 1,603 workers.

Researchers said the exact number of workers for each permit is unreliable because of mismatches between permits and the absence of worker counts on some permits.

“Given the program’s lack of oversight, inconsistencies with state-level emergency protocols, and insufficient monitoring of hazardous air quality in the impacted regions, there is a need to further analyze the risks, health impacts, and structural inequalities the program imposes on farmworkers, in particular those who are undocumented,” the study said.

Fix Our Forests Act advances toward becoming law in US

Wildland Firefighting

A bill that would overhaul the United States’ wildfire policies is one step closer to becoming law.

The bipartisan Fix Our Forests Act passed out of the Senate Agriculture Committee on Tuesday morning, marking the first advancement of the bill since it previously stalled in committees under both the Biden and the previous Trump administration.

The Act would create an interagency Fireshed Center focused on wildfire prediction and tracking, establish fireshed management areas in forests with high wildfire risks, and expedite the review of wildfire-related forest management projects under the National Environmental Policy Act. The act has gained support from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, along with numerous environmental and wildfire-focused organizations.

Critics of the Act claim it would further open up forests to logging and allow a large-scale rollback of the Endangered Species Act, National Historic Preservation Act, and National Environmental Policy Act.

Advocates at Megafire Action, a non-profit organization focused on policies to help avert catastrophic wildfires, launched a historic six-figure advertisement campaign a month ago. The organization claimed it was the first-ever ad campaign made to support a piece of wildfire legislation.

“After this strong showing, Congress is poised to deliver much-needed tools to reduce risk, restore our forests and wildlands, and protect lives,” Megafire Action CEO and Founder Matt Weiner told Wildfire Today on Tuesday. “We urge all members of Congress—Democrats and Republicans alike—to carry this momentum forward and pass the Fix Our Forests Act without delay.” 

Wildfire extremes are getting more extreme worldwide, new report shows

BC Wildfire Service

Wildfires across the globe are worsening due to the climate crisis, according to a newly released report compiled by scientists from more than 60 institutes in 20 countries.

The State of Wildfires Report for 2024-2025 found that some of the largest and most catastrophic wildfires over the past year were two to three times more likely to burn due to climate change. The worldwide increases in burned area and fire severity were driven not just by warmer-than-average temperatures, but also by abnormal increases in downpours followed by drought conditions, which boosted dry fuel loads.

“Drought and heatwaves set the stage for four of the most prominent extreme wildfire events of the 2024-25 fire season, including southern California (January 2025), Northeast Amazonia (early in 2024), the Brazilian Pantanal and Bolivian Chiquitano (August-September 2024), and the Congo Basin (July 2024),” the researcher’s report said. “A number of exacerbating factors were present in southern California, including unusually high fuel build-up during previous wet years and unseasonal heat and drought conditions in winter, which coincided with the timing of Santa Ana winds.”

Wildfires that burned between 2024 and 2025 also emitted over 8 billion tonnes of CO₂. The total is a 10% increase in average wildfire emissions since 2003 and exceeds the annual CO₂ emissions of more than 200 countries. South American forests and wetlands had over triple the global emission average, while Canada’s boreal forests emitted double the global average.

The researchers emphasized that greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels will continue to worsen heatwaves and droughts and increase the risk of more frequent and intense fires worldwide, but also said it’s not too late to change the world’s course. They pointed to the upcoming United Nations annual climate summit, COP30, as a venue where developed nations could commit to rapidly reducing their greenhouse gas emissions.

“We need stronger and faster climate action to cut fossil fuel emissions, protect nature and reduce land clearing,” report researcher Dr Hamish Clarke from the University of Melbourne said in an article in The Conversation. “And we can get better at responding to the risk of fires, from nuanced forest management to preparing households and short and long-term disaster recovery.”

Click here to read the full report.

Regulators, critics stall Hawaii utility’s wildfire safety plan

The historic 2023 Lahaina wildfire that killed over 100 people was caused by high winds snapping a power pole. Two years later, the island’s utility is struggling to implement prevention measures to stop the next wildfire from starting.

Hawaiian Electric’s proposed wildfire safety plan has stalled in Public Utilities Commission meetings, with members saying they need more time to review both the plan and $350 million the utility wants to charge customers over the next three years to pay for it.

The utility, in a June press release, said the plan would focus on grid hardening, asset inspections, and vegetation management in areas with medium to high risk of ignition. The plan would be funded by residential bill increases of up to $5 a month on Maui, and less on other islands, the utility claimed. It also said the funds would go toward installing more weather stations and hazard-detection cameras while continuing engagement with local communities.

Hawaii’s state agency Division of Consumer Advocacy, while acknowledging the “meaningful progress” of the plan, concluded that it is largely unsatisfied with it, saying it would result in increases to residents’ power bills to recover the costs. It also labeled the entirety of the utility’s plan as “below expectations” and “needs improvement” because the utility’s wildfire plan falls short of industry standards, doesn’t factor in socially vulnerable populations, and is overly aggressive in costly capital improvements without solid foundations in wildfire modeling.

“HECO is trying to catch up to something they should have addressed years ago, and they want to bill rate payers for the fact that they’ve been delaying dealing with the issue,” Life of the Land clean energy advocate Henry Curtis told Hawaii News Now. “They have overhead lines in high wildfire risk areas and their solution would be, well, we can turn them off in high wind conditions, low humidity conditions. But that means that communities that are in rural areas are more likely to be impacted negatively by this.”

The utility, according to submitted testimony, has absorbed over $100 million in costs since its lines started the deadly wildfire by ramping up prevention tactics including clearing high grasses and replacing other infrastructure. But the Consumer Advocate said the utility still needs to better integrate fire behavior modeling and vegetation management into its risk assessments.

Click here to read Consumer Advocates’ assessment of the plan.

California’s new Wildfire Catastrophe Model will challenge insurance companies’ ‘secretive algorithms’

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a first-in-the-nation law into effect on Friday, which lawmakers say will push back on “secretive” wildfire risk algorithms used by insurance companies.

The legislation, SB 429, requires all documentation, programs, data, and algorithms of the model relating to wildfire risk to be publicly available. The new regulations go against the state’s current rules that exempt insurance companies from disclosing that information, which they use to set insurance rates.

The law also calls on the California Department of Insurance and the state’s universities to create a wildfire safety and risk mitigation program to assess risks and drive mitigation efforts across federal, state, and local partners, according to the law’s text.

“Most of California’s buildings are not properly mitigated against wildfires,” a report from the California Department of Insurance said earlier this year. “Extreme weather-fueled wildfires are also expanding or intensifying the wildfire risk map. This is a problem at the intersection of fire science, climate science, wildland firefighting, home hardening, fire risk mitigation efforts, and the economics of risk, loss, and the cost of recovery. As a multifaceted problem, this crisis demands a collaborative, multisector solution.”

The move was applauded by consumer protection organizations in the state, who say the new model will give homeowners, renters, and small businesses access to information they need to understand their own wildfire risk and the ability to make their communities safer.

“Homeowners are fed up with insurance companies’ black-box models that penalize consumers for fire risk but refuse to explain how they calculate it,” Consumer Watchdog Executive Director Carmen Balber said in a press release on Monday. “Even when they do everything to protect their homes from wildfires homeowners face extreme price hikes or lose their insurance completely. A fully transparent wildfire model will level the playing field and empower consumers to keep their insurance and make their homes and communities safer.”

Click here to read the law’s full text.

Police arrest suspected arsonist responsible for Los Angeles’ Palisades Fire

A 29-year-old man has been arrested and is facing charges for allegedly starting Los Angeles’ historic Palisades Fire in January.

Acting U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli, in a post on social media on Wednesday, said authorities arrested Melbourne, Florida, resident Jonathan Rinderknecht for maliciously starting the fire on New Year’s Day.

“Investigators determined that the Palisades Fire reported on Jan. 7 was caused by an intentionally set fire near a viewpoint along the Temescal Ridge Trail in Topanga State Park on Jan. 1,” Acting Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Agent in Charge Kenny Cooper said at a press conference on Wednesday. “We know this arrest cannot erase the pain or grief or losses endured, but we hope it is a step forward.”

Authorities believe Rinderknecht set the fire on Jan. 1, and it continued to burn in dry brush before eventually evolving into one of the region’s deadliest and most destructive wildfires on record. Investigators reportedly identified Rinderknecht on Jan. 24 as a potential suspect.

During his interview with authorities, Rinderknecht allegedly lied, telling investigators he wasn’t near the fire. Geolocation data for a 911 call he made about the fire allegedly showed he was standing 30 feet away from the fire after he dropped someone off there while driving for Uber around midnight.

Investigators also said Rinderknecht previously lived in the area and they allegedly found numerous ChatGPT-generated images depicting burning cities among the evidence collected from Rinderknecht’s possessions.

His initial court appearance is scheduled for the U.S. District Court in Orlando at 1:30 p.m. EDT on Wednesday. Rinderknecht has no previous criminal history.

Credit: Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli

The Palisades Fire killed 12 people and destroyed more than 6,000 homes and buildings in the wealthy Pacific Palisades neighborhood in Los Angeles. A recent Redfin analysis estimated that the fire caused $51.7 billion worth of damage by damaging over 11,000 residential properties in the region.

“The council shared a list of 11,125 residential parcels in the city of Los Angeles that were inspected by the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety after the wildfires,” the company said. “Redfin was able to match nearly 11,000 of those parcels with Redfin property value estimates as of December 2024—the month before the fires. Many, but not all, were completely destroyed by the fires.”

READ MORE: LA’s Palisades Fire caused over $50B in home damages, report finds

Wildfire smoke will kill more people in US, but where is up for debate

Pioneer Fire

Nearly 70,000 people in the United States are expected to die annually from wildfire smoke by 2050, according to newly published research.

Findings of a study were published in Nature on Sept. 18, which prompted public discussion due to the strikingly dire figures. The analysis estimated that smoke from wildfires already contributes to around 40,000 deaths each year in the nation. The additional 30,000 annual deaths by 2050 are primarily attributed to climate change, which is making already fire-prone regions in the U.S. hotter and drier.

The study, however, identifies the location of the forecasted spike in wildfire smoke deaths as eastern US, where historically there are fewer large wildfires compared to the western US. The research team, from a range of universities including Stanford, University of California, Harvard, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said that over half of the 70,000 wildfire smoke deaths will come from eastern states, due to higher population densities and damage from low smoke concentrations.

“Because of the mortality effects we uncover at low annual smoke concentrations, we project large mortality burdens not only in heavy smoke regions but also in populous regions with low smoke concentrations (e.g., the eastern US),” the researchers said. “Similarly, we estimate substantial mortality increases even in the low warming scenario because of projected increases in low-level annual smoke concentration.”

The study’s findings, however, directly contradict separate research published a week beforehand, which found that an overlooked aspect of wildfires overinflates mortality estimates.

This study – published in Science – was conducted by a research team from several Chinese universities with input from colleagues in the US and Canada and funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. It found that most predictive wildfire models currently do not include heat-induced weather changes caused by wildfires.

Schematic diagram illustrating how fire heat in the WUS influences PM2.5 air pollution in the EUS. Extreme fires in the WUS release heat that triggers convection, which reduces moisture transport from the WUS to the central US although westerlies are enhanced. The resulting dryer and warmer central US features low-level pressure anomalies, inducing anomalous easterlies and promoting convective precipitation over the EUS. As a result, PM2.5 air pollution and associated health risks in the EUS are alleviated. It should be noted that the PM2.5 air pollution and health consequences in this figure include the contribution of fire aerosols. Source: Science.

The phenomenon, called heat-induced convection, and subsequent meteorological changes actually lower air pollution in eastern states while worsening particulate matter in western states. The researchers said that current models overestimate wildfire smoke deaths by 1,200 and overestimate economic losses by $3.3 billion USD, particularly in eastern states.

“The findings … imply that wildfire-excited jet-stream waves can propagate atmospheric energy eastward, beyond North America, to alter the global air circulation,” according to a commentary in Science that accompanied the main research paper. “This underscores the need to approach wildfire research from a broader, global perspective. Strengthening cross-border and interdisciplinary collaboration is key to improving predictability and driving more effective solutions for wildfire control and recovery.”

The weather data used in the study published in Nature included air temperature, precipitation, relative humidity, soil moisture, vapor pressure deficit, wind speed, and runoff, but there is no indication that the researchers accounted for fire-induced convection.

The phenomenon is one of many uncertainties that fire researchers are continually working to address, including the current limitations of scientific models addressed in the paper, like the difficulty of predicting wildfire impact at local scales and evaluating the repercussions of future unprecedented climate conditions with historical data.

“Addressing these uncertainties could further improve understanding of the climate influences on wildfire pollution and health, and thus inform relevant policies,” the Nature study’s researchers said.

Wildfire Today reached out to both research teams for further insight into the different findings of the two studies, but received no reply.

How the US government shutdown will affect wildland firefighters

The U.S. government has shut down after federal funding expired without a continuation decision at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday.

It is the first time the government has shut down since 2018, which was the longest shutdown in US history at 35 days. That shutdown, however, happened between December and January. This shutdown is happening as wildfires continue to burn across the nation.

The Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture both released contingency plans for the lapse in federal funding just days before the shutdown was expected to happen. Both plans state that personnel directly related to wildfire response will largely be exempt from furloughs.

The Department of the Interior’s plan said National Park Service employees involved in fire suppression or fire monitoring activities will not be furloughed. The Department of Agriculture’s plan said that employees who respond to and prepare for wildland fires will not be furloughed.

But multiple wildland firefighters have told Wildfire Today that furloughs will still hit employees who do not have primary fire duties. Employees who are red-carded, or have wildland fire incident qualification certification, have anecdotally been furloughed because wildfire duties were secondary to their official duties. Those individuals provide critical help to wildland firefighters.

The loss of support mirrors the mass firings executed on the Forest Service and National Park Service earlier this year. Around 75% of the 6,000 USFS probationary employees whom the Trump Administration fired had secondary wildland fire duties, Grassroots Wildland Firefighters Vice President Riva Duncan previously told Wildfire Today.

“While ‘primary firefighters’ were exempt, the positions that were cut made some pretty huge contributions to operational wildland fire,” Duncan said. “For example, eastern national forests rely much more heavily on these collateral duty folks to do a lot of prescribed burning and initial attack of wildfires…There were people working the LA fires who, because it was the offseason, weren’t primary fire but were filling in on engines and crews.”

The USDA was eventually ordered to hire back all of the workers it had laid off in March. But, if this shutdown is anything like 2018, firefighters may be without support for some time.

What impacts are you seeing with this shutdown? Tell us in the Comments section.

US Wildland Fire Service opens applications for Director position

firefighter radio White Draw Fire

The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) on Monday officially opened up applications for its U.S. Wildland Fire Service Director position.

The department is accepting applications for the position from Sept. 29 through Oct. 13. The position will be based in either Washington, D.C., or Boise, Idaho, and has a salary of $191,900 to $225,700.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: ‘US Wildland Fire Service’ unveiled by USDA, DOI

The job posting offered insight into the service’s priorities, including:

  1. Lead all wildland fire management activities across the DOI, including workforce development, technology investments, communications, and administrative support, ensuring alignment with departmental mission, priorities, and policies.
  2. Coordinate and oversee structural fire management programs while collaborating with the National Park Service, Bureau of Reclamation, and other stakeholders.
  3. Represent the Department on wildland fire issues before Congress and the president.
  4. Oversee all aspects of the Wildland Fire Management Account, including budget development with other federal partners.
  5. Serve as the Department’s lead for firefighting under the National Response Framework.

Click here to see the job posting’s requirements and how to apply.

DOI and the Department of Agriculture announced the Service’s creation on Sept. 15, saying it will be up and running by January 2026.

The departments also said it will begin shifting away from “outdated systems and fragmented response” that have hindered previous wildfire efforts.

“For too long, outdated and fragmented systems have slowed our ability to fight fires and protect lives. Under President Trump’s leadership, we are cutting through the bureaucracy and building a unified, modern wildfire response system that works as fast and as fearlessly as the men and women on the front lines,” Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said in the press release. “By streamlining federal capabilities and strengthening our partnerships with state, tribal and local teams, we will deliver the common-sense reforms needed to safeguard our communities, our lands and our future.” 

Wildfires trigger Colorado insurance spike

Calwood Fire, Oct. 17, 2020

A new report out of Colorado found that homeowners in the state have the sixth-highest insurance costs in the nation, primarily in wildfire-prone areas. Costs aren’t expected to fall anytime soon.

The research paper published by Colorado State University’s Regional Economic Development Institute found the average homeowner insurance premium was $4,072 annually for $300,000 in coverage. Premiums increased by 58% from 2018 to 2023.

More than 321,000 homes in the state face “moderate or higher” wildfire risk, around 12% of the state’s total housing units. Report author Caroline Conley Norris pointed to increased development in wildfire-prone areas as a major reason for the increase.

Many insurers have also decided to remove themselves from certain areas of the Colorado market since wildfire risk is too high, but not nearly at the same rate as other disaster-prone states. Norris said that may be because Colorado is less regulated than other states.

“It could mean that insurers are able to cover their risk (in Colorado) in other ways. They can raise their premiums or adjust their terms in a way that makes them feel comfortable,” Norris told Colorado State University. “We’re seeing a lot of non-renewal in places like California and Florida, where insurers are seeing repeated giant losses from these hazard events and they aren’t able to raise their prices fast enough.”

Colorado lawmakers just opened up their FAIR insurance coverage plan to residential property owners. The plan is meant to act as a last-resort insurer when homeowners can’t get any other coverage.

Currently, 33 other states have FAIR plans, but each state sets up its plans differently. Norris said it’s harder to get approved for a FAIR plan in Colorado, but she believes that’s because lawmakers were trying to keep the state budget in mind.

“It will be interesting to see what happens here in Colorado,” Norris said. “When homeowners in some high-risk areas have really expensive insurance options but aren’t eligible for the FAIR plan, will they opt to not buy home insurance and self-insure? We’re seeing some affluent homeowners do that in Florida because paying for repairs out of pocket is a better option than buying prohibitively expensive insurance.”

Click here to read the full report.