OK, I admit it. I just wanted to type that headline. But there really was a 3-acre fire at Monkey Junction near Wilmington, NC, according to WWAY News Channel 3.
Category: Wildfire
Unplanned vegetation fires
Oklahoma State Trooper burned on grass fire
Trooper Josh Tinsler, 23, was severely burned Friday while checking to see if there was anyone at home in a house that was threatened by a grass fire near Hollis, OK. While handling evacuation on the fire, the second-year trooper’s car became stuck while turning around and the car was overrun by the fire. His injuries included second- and third-degree burns on his face, chest, back and arms, including most of the right side of his body.
Large fires in southeast NM
The Las Cruces Sun-News has the story about some large fires in southeast NM.
Grass fire burns homes, forces evacuations in southeastern NM
The Associated Press
Article Launched: 03/15/2008 12:36:04 AM MDTHOBBS, N.M.—Firefighters are bracing for another day of fierce wind as they battle a grass fire that has raced across thousands of acres in southeastern New Mexico, taking with it four homes and forcing residents to evacuate.
The blaze began Friday as two separate fires. The first fire was reported around 3 p.m., a second fire was spotted about an hour later and the flames soon merged. By nightfall, it was 2 miles wide and 20 miles long and had burned across the state line into Texas, said Dan Ware, a spokesman with the State Forestry Division.
“The grass and the brush is still extremely thick and so it keeps adding fuel to this fire,” Ware said.
Firefighters were concerned about the rural community of Knowles, just west of the New Mexico-Texas line. They told residents scattered throughout the area to leave and they issued a voluntary evacuation for residents living north of Hobbs between N.M. 18 and N.M. 132. Ware could not say how many homes were in the area.
An evacuation center was set up at Hobbs High School.
More than 100 firefighters were battling the 25,600-acre fire, but gusting winds made the effort difficult, Ware said.
Winds ranging from 30 to 45 mph fed the flames Friday afternoon. The National Weather Service had issued a wind warning for the area but that expired late Friday and the wind speed dropped to under 30 mph overnight.
Fires in South Australia
Our brothers down under have their hands full with several large bush fires. The record heat is not giving the firefighters much of a break.
Here are some links:
CFS monitors bushfires near Adelaide
South Australia Imposes Fire Ban as Record Heatwave Hits State
Photo, courtesy of ABC.net.au: A house burns during a bushfire near Willunga Hill, south of Adelaide, on March 13, 2008. (ABC TV)
7 firefighters die on forest fire in Honduras
Damn, here’s another one. From a story at eitb in Spain:
“The firefighters, four soldiers and three forestry workers, were part of a 200-strong team been battling to contain the fire on a mountainside close to Tegucigalpa since Friday.
Seven firefighters died in Honduras on Sunday overwhelmed by a raging forest blaze on the outskirts of the capital, the military said.
They were working to put out the fire and suddenly there was a change of wind direction and they were engulfed by flames, Gen. Orlando Vasquez told local radio. Honduras is at the start of its summer and forest fires at common at this time.”
I wish there was some better wildland fire news to report, than all these firefighters dieing. We will all morn for our fallen brothers.
Oddly enough, on Saturday I will arrive in Honduras to spend a week on Roatan island. I’ll try to get my mind off of all this with some scuba diving, snorkeling on coral reefs, hanging out on the beach, and listening to Jimmy Buffet while sipping a beverage. I might even have a drink with an umbrella in it.
Six people die in forest fire in China
This initially was reported on March 3 by Reuters:
BEIJING, March 3 (Reuters) – Six villagers died in central China’s Hunan province as they tried to battle a forest fire in an area ravaged by severe winter storms, state media said on Monday.
The fire broke out on Saturday, trapping more than 200 people in the village of Xitai, Xinhua news agency reported. “The main cause can be attributed to illegal fires set in the forests,” Xinhua quoted Hu Changqing, vice head of the Hunan Forestry Department, as saying.
Forest fires had killed 22 people in the mountainous southern province this year and more than 1,500 forest fires had raged in 89 counties since Feb. 6, Xinhua said.
China’s most bitter winter in decades had left Hunan’s forests vulnerable to fires, Xinhua said, as heavy snowfalls collapsed power lines and tree branches. “The broken tree branches and the heating and lighting facilities left by the snow disaster relief teams in the forest have become very dangerous now and should be cleared as soon as possible,” the agency quoted Xu Minghua, Hunan’s vice governor, as saying.
