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Bushfires north of Perth in Western Australia

Author Kelly AnderssonPosted on Categories WildfireTags ,

Residents near Perth on the southwestern coast of Australia  are being warned to evacuate or risk losing their lives, with an emergency bushfire warning in place.

Perth on the southwest coast of Australia
Perth on the southwest coast of Australia

The bushfire alert was in effect on Monday morning, and the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) warned that homes and lives were at risk. Residents in other towns including Bindoon, Breera, Gingin, Lennard Brooke, Mooliabeenee, and Moondah were warned that they were “in danger and need to act immediately to survive,” with homes on Wowra Drive and Lennard Road under direct threat by fire.

Gingin Volunteer Fire & Rescue
Photo by Chandler Blackburn, Gingin Volunteer Fire & Rescue
Residents were told to take immediate action with the cluster of fires north of Perth and were warned to either leave for safety — or take shelter in their homes if it’s not safe to evacuate. Residents not at home were warned to not try to return.
Infrared image, Australia, 15. January 2024

More than 200 firefighters and aviation support staff are fighting the cluster of fires in the Gingin and Chittering shires, and a severe heat warning indicated that temperatures were rising into the mid-forties (40°C = 104°F).

An emergency bushfire alert has been issued for residents just an hour away from Perth. Picture: DFES/ Nikki Woods/ Gingin Volunteer Fire and Rescue
Nikki Wood photo, DFES – Gingin Volunteer Fire & Rescue
An emergency bushfire alert has been issued for residents just an hour away from Perth, the Australian reports. Warnings were issued for Bambun, Coonabidgee, Breera, and Lennard Brooke. “There is a possible threat to lives and homes as a fire is approaching in the area and conditions are changing,” the DFES warned.

Bushfire-prone weather conditions are expected for the rest of this week, with a thunderstorm warning adding to the fire danger. The Bureau of Meteorology issued an extreme fire danger warning for the areas of Barrup and Blackwood with hot, dry and windy conditions increasing fire danger. Lightning and wind from thunderstorms in the South West Land Division could also ignite and exacerbate fires, and heatwave warnings were issued for much of Western Australia.

Nearly double the usual winter wildfires, triple the acreage burned in northern India

Author Hunter BasslerPosted on Categories WildfireTags , ,

India’s Forest Service has reported 1,006 wildfire alerts to the northern state of Uttarakhand since November 1, according to the Times of India. That number is up from the 556 wildfire alerts the service reported during the same time last year.

The increase is part of a worrying and destructive cycle that has escalated in the area for the past six years. Uttarakhand has had triple the acres burned by wildfires since 2017, worsened by its first-ever repeated occurrence of winter wildfires, or wildfires outside of the state’s usual fire season of February 15 to June 15.

“The unusual shift in the fire season may be linked to different reasons including climate change, the lockdown, or too much human intervention in the forests,” Arti Chaudhary, the head of Silviculture and Forest Resource Management Division at the Forest Research Institute, told the Times. “A five-year study across 15 states of the country that witness forest fires, including Uttarakhand, has been initiated to thoroughly understand the actual reasons behind this shift, as it has been recorded all over the country.”

The winter wildfires also contributed to the state’s above-average wildfire carbon emissions in 2021. Uttarakhand’s wildfires emitted an estimated 0.2 megatonnes of carbon in March 2021 alone, breaking a record set in 2003, according to Copernicus Climate Change Service scientist Mark Parrington.

Northern India’s skies took on a hazy hue in November caused in part by the unusual wildfire shift, NASA satellites show. The haze is reportedly a seasonal occurrence caused by urban pollution entering the atmosphere when seasonal weather patterns trap air pollution near the ground, but smoke from the unseasonal wildfires made the air quality even worse.

“The World Health Organization considers 15 micrograms per cubic meter of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) to be a safe limit,” said NASA. “But ground-based air quality monitors routinely measured levels that exceeded 300 and, at times, 500 micrograms per cubic meter in November.”

northern India, NASA image
Northern India, NASA image

Caldor Fire shooters won’t go to trial

Author Kelly AnderssonPosted on Categories WildfireTags , 3 Comments on Caldor Fire shooters won’t go to trial

A judge ruled last week that there is insufficient evidence to take to trial the men arrested for allegedly starting the 2021 Caldor Fire, which burned more than 221,000 acres south of Lake Tahoe, California.

David Scott Smith, 66, and his son Travis “Shane” Smith, 32, were arrested and charged with reckless arson in December 2021, months after the start of the fire. The two were accused of violating section 452 of the California Penal Code, commonly referred to as “reckless arson,” which causes inhabited properties to burn and results in great bodily injury to multiple victims. This charge can be filed against someone who unintentionally starts a fire. Both David and Travis were held on a $1 million bail, the district attorney’s office said. Both pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Travis and David Smith, suspects in Caldor Fire ignition.
Travis and David Smith, suspects in Caldor Fire ignition.

One firefighter was severely burned while assigned to the fire. Richard Gerety III of Patterson was on a four-person engine crew from West Stanislaus Fire when he fell into burning material. It was his tenth day on the fire. He suffered third-degree burns on his arms and hands and second-degree burns to his legs, said his wife, Jennifer Gerety.

Capital Public Radio reported that prosecutors said the two men started the fire “when a projectile discharged from a firearm and struck an object.” But El Dorado County Superior Court Judge Vicki Ashworth has ruled there was not enough evidence to move the case to trial. “As to reckless burning charges, the court found there was insufficient evidence to meet the legal requirements that the behavior was reckless,” said the El Dorado County District Attorney’s office.

The Caldor Fire burned for 67 days in El Dorado, Alpine, and Amador counties, destroying more than 1,000 structures and forcing 53,000 people from their homes. It was the second fire to burn across the crest of the Sierra Nevada in state history, the first being the Dixie Fire earlier in the summer of 2021.

The pair still face gun-related charges, Shane Smith for possession of a machine gun, and David Smith for possession of a silencer. They will be arraigned in February.

According to a CBS News report, the relevant law specifically states that a defendant’s behavior must be “reckless as defined in Penal Code section 450, requiring that an individual knows their actions present a substantial and unjustifiable risk but consciously disregards that risk.” Prosecutors said they showed evidence that David and Thomas Smith drove out of a location where the Caldor Fire started, and they were shooting a gun on a day with dry conditions.

The USFS determined a bullet strike was the probable cause of the fire. Travis Smith will be arraigned on February 2 for possession of a machine gun, and David is scheduled to be in court the same day for arraignment on a charge of possessing a silencer.

Photos tell story of Maui wildfires’ destruction, aftermath and recovery

Author Hunter BasslerPosted on Categories WildfireTags ,

It’s been nearly five months since wildfires devastated Lahaina, on the Hawaiian island of Maui. Since then, images of the destruction have captivated the nation.

Honolulu Civil Beat has compiled collections of photos from each month of the aftermath, cataloging the desperation and the assistance that has flooded the area since the wildfires were controlled.

“We have thousands of images in our growing media database, of Lahaina and Upcountry, the victims and the landscape that were left in ash and ruin,” wrote for the Civil Beat. “In the past nearly five months, we’ve photographed numerous community gatherings, resource fairs, public officials in various settings from press conferences to legislative hearings. We’ve picked a smattering that we think represents the story that is continuing to unfold and we’ll publish these galleries at the end of each month.”

See the Maui fires in the photo series here:

2023 Fire season: smallest number of acres in 25 years

Author Hunter BasslerPosted on Categories WildfireTags 3 Comments on 2023 Fire season: smallest number of acres in 25 years

Noxious smoke, zombie fires and the deadliest wildfire in modern U.S. history.

Wildfires made headlines numerous times throughout 2023, with the Lahaina wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui taking center stage in national media for months. For thousands of residents, recovery is still ongoing, with no end in sight.

Despite that, the year’s wildfire season was one of the quietest in decades. The National Interagency Fire Center estimated that 54,273 wildfires burned about 2.6 million acres. That’s the lowest yearly U.S. acreage burned by wildfire since 1998, when 81,043 wildfires burned 1.3 million acres.

The year is a relief for the wildland firefighters who are coming off  multiple high-burn years in a row, with 2015, 2017, and 2020 each  exceeding 10 million acres burned. The last time wildfires burned under 4 million acres was a decade ago when 63,312 fires in 2014 burned 3.6 million acres.

The reason for the low burn acreage could be attributed partly to 2023’s wet West. While the Eastern U.S. often has more wildfires, Western states see more acreage burned during the season. Thanks to above-average —  and some record-breaking — snowfall in states including California, Arizona, and Nevada, wildfires couldn’t find a foothold.

nsidc.org
nsidc.org

“Nine atmospheric rivers over a three-week period fueled the record-breaking snowfall,”  according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. “The snow brought much-needed relief to the drought-stricken West, with the exception of the Pacific Northwest, where rapid snowmelt and early melt contributed to moderate drought conditions in late spring.”

While the U.S. saw relief, its northern neighbor dealt with a nightmare. Canada burned a record-breaking 18 million hectares (more than 44 million acres, roughly the size of North Dakota) during its 2023 fire season. The total blows the nation’s previous most-burned year out of the water, according to the Canadian National Fire Database. The country’s previous record year was 1980, when nearly 8 million hectares burned.

In contrast to the Western U.S. record-setting snowfall, much of Canada’s forests experienced drought and high temperatures heading into its wildfire season, Canada’s Drought Monitor shows. Severe drought was seen throughout the year, while extreme drought was seen in every month after April.

Canadian fire years
Canadian fire years

As the world kicks off 2024, wildland firefighters across the West are hoping for another record-setting snowfall.

Australia 4 years ago today

Author Kelly AnderssonPosted on Categories WildfireTags ,

 

December 31, 2019 Australia bushfire smoke
December 31, 2019 Australia bushfire smoke

Very large bushfires in December of 2019 were rapidly spreading through areas of New South Wales and Victoria in southeast Australia, leaving behind hundreds of thousands of burned hectares, blackened forests, and destroyed structures in their wakes.

Victoria
Authorities in Victoria confirmed that at least 43 structures were destroyed in the Gippsland region where more than 400,000 hectares (988,000  acres) had burned. Many of the structures were in the Sarsfield and Buchan areas.

The military was activated to assist firefighters and the public. The Australian Defense Force deployed Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters, as well as fixed-wing aircraft and Navy vessels for firefighting support and evacuations. Authorities were considering using helicopters to fly in food and other supplies to people cut off by fires and road closures. Fire aviation specialists from the United States and Canada arrived in Australia to help manage aircraft.

12/31/2019 New South Wales

New South  Wales
At least 40 homes were destroyed by fires in Conjola Park on the south coast of NSW as the fire burned through on December 31. Many residents fled to the beach.

Many structures burned in Cobargo, including some of those along Princes Highway, the main street going through the town.

An engine crew from Fire and Rescue New South Wales Station 509 Wyoming recorded the video below showing the moment their truck was overrun by a fire south of Nowra, NSW. The crew was forced to shelter in their truck as the fire front passed through. The video was posted by NSW Rural Fire Service December 31, 2019 local time.