Wildfire Today

‘Watch our state burn’: Trump’s threat to withhold California wildfire aid angers state’s firefighting force

Hunter BasslerSeptember 15, 2024September 14, 2024California, Wildfire, Wildland FirefighterLeave a comment

During a pseudo-campaign stop that functioned more as a golf course advertisement, former President Donald Trump threatened to withhold federal wildfire aid from California if Gov. Gavin Newsom didn’t bow to his policies, infuriating firefighters throughout the state.

Trump made the declaration on Friday during a private fundraiser at his golf club in Rancho Palos Verdes. The statement was made after Trump ranted about a nonexistent “very large faucet” in Canada holding water back from California and causing the state’s drought.

“The automobile industry is dead, the water coming in is dead, and Gavin Newsom is going to sign those papers, and if he doesn’t sign those papers, we won’t give him money to put out all his fires,” Trump said. “And if we don’t give him the money to put out his fires, he’s got problems.”

Dixie Fire at Greenville, CA, 2021 — Dixie Fire at Greenville, California — photo ©2021 Jay Walter.

The declaration, understandably, angered California’s wildland firefighting force. California Professional Firefighters President Brian K. Rice said the former president should be ashamed over the threat.

“Trump expressed that he would play with [Californians’] lives and their homes if he doesn’t get what he wants,” Rice said in a statement posted on Twitter. “He would rather watch our state burn in the name of his political games, than to send help if he were to become president again…It is a disgrace to our great nation and to every Californian that this man has a platform to threaten our livelihoods, safety, families and our state.”

Newsom also weighed in after Trump’s threat, calling it a warning to every American.

“Trump just admitted he will block emergency disaster funds to settle political vendettas,” Newsom posted on Twitter. “Today it’s California’s wildfires. Tomorrow it could be hurricane funding for North Carolina or flooding assistance for homeowners in Pennsylvania. Donald Trump doesn’t care about America — he only cares about himself.”

A fire whirl was spotted at the Park Fire in the early evening hours of July 25, 2024. ~ AlertCalifornia camera — A fire whirl was spotted at the Park Fire in the early evening hours of July 25, 2024.
~ AlertCalifornia camera

Denying disaster aid to California is a tradition for Trump. His 2020 administration initially denied a request submitted by the state during what would become its most-disastrous wildfire season on record. The administration would go on to approve the aid, but not before causing panic throughout the state driven by damage, cleanup, and rebuilding woes.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Trump administration reverses decision to deny California’s request for fire disaster assistance

Watch the full C-SPAN recording of Trump’s press conference here (he starts talking about water and wildfire funding at 1:05:00):

Students at California college choked by wildfire smoke urge campus closure

Hunter BasslerSeptember 11, 2024September 11, 2024California, Safety, Smoke, WildfireLeave a comment

Many schools around San Bernardino County have closed as smoke from the nearby Line Fire blots out the sky and pollutes the air around the area.

Air quality for the area on Wednesday was recorded as “Unhealthy” at 178 PM2.5, according to AirNow. The entire county is under an air quality alert issued by the National Weather Service until Thursday morning. The fire has burned 34,729 acres and is at 14% containment as of Wednesday afternoon.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Line Fire’s evacuations for thousands hold as it burns away from San Bernardino

The hazardous conditions caused many school districts throughout the area to close for the week, including the Bear Valley Unified School District, the Redlands Unified School District, and the Rim of the World Unified School District.

California State University at San Bernardino, however, has continued to have classes, enraging thousands of students on campus.

Line Fire burning on Sept. 10 near Keller Peak. Credit: ALERTCalifornia / UC San Diego

“This fire has brought with it a surge of potential health effects, most notably to those with pre-existing respiratory issues, adding a layer of danger on top of an already dangerous situation,” a petition to close the campus, which has reached over 3,000 signatures, said. “As per the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), exposure to such particles can cause respiratory symptoms and aggravate lung and heart conditions.”

The EPA attributes numerous health effects to short-term wildfire smoke exposure, including:

Heart failure
Heart attack
Stroke
Increased risk of emergency room visits and hospital admissions
Bronchitis
Reduced lung function
Increased risk of asthma exacerbation and aggravation of other lung diseases

“It’s distressing that amidst these severe conditions, the campus remains open, forcing students and faculty members to risk their health,” the petition said. “We should not have to choose between our health and our education. Safe and quality education should not involve risking your wellbeing.”

Recent Washington Department of Ecology research found air pollution, driven by wildfire smoke, shortened life expectancy for the state’s most overburdened communities by 2.4 years. Those communities also had higher numbers of deaths from cardiovascular disease.

READ MORE: Smoke reduced life expectancy across Washington

Smoke from other wildfires in the area, including the Bridge, Airport, and Roblar fires, are also inundating the area but will also act to moderate fire activity, San Bernardino National Forest officials said Wednesday.

“Smoke from fires across the region will help moderate fire activity unless the skies clear and the smoke thins,” officials said. “That would allow for more slope and vegetation aligned runs.”

Line Fire’s evacuations for thousands hold as it burns away from San Bernardino

Hunter BasslerSeptember 10, 2024September 11, 2024California, Evacuations, Uncategorized, WildfireLeave a comment

Crews continue to fight the arson-started Line Fire, which has burned 26,516 acres of the San Bernardino National Forest and sits at 5% contained as of Tuesday morning.

The wildfire has threatened over 65,000 structures since it first began on Sept. 5, with 9,200 of those structures under evacuation orders, Cal Fire officials said. A 34-year-old man was arrested and is suspected of starting the fire in the area of Baseline Road and Alpin Street in Highland, KTLA reported.

Crews report the fire’s greatest intensity is on its north and east sides, heading away from the highly populated area of San Bernardino, Highland, and Redlands. Strong winds and overall very dry conditions will likely increase fire spread into Tuesday night, with cooler weather into the end of the week moderating fire activity.

California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s Map of the Line Fire from Sept. 9, 2024.

Evacuation orders were in place for numerous areas around the fire on Tuesday, including:

Communities of Running Springs and Arrowbear Lake
The community of Forrest Falls
The community of Mountain Home Village
The communities of Angelus Oaks, Seven Oaks and all campgrounds and cabins in the area
From Calle Del Rio east to Hwy 38 and from Greenspot Road north to the foothills
The area east of Orchard Road to Cloverhill Drive from Highland Ave north to the foothills
All undeveloped land east of Hwy 330 to Summertrail Place and north of Highland Avenue
The areas north and east of Highland Avenue and Palm Avenue

Numerous other areas were put under evacuation warnings. Click here for the most up-to-date evacuations.

The California National Guard, under order of Governor Gavin Newsom, has deployed the following resources to the fire, according to Cal Fire:

Four UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters for water bucket dropping operations
Two C-130 aircraft with Modular Airborne Fire Fighting Systems (MAFFS)
Four 20-person hand crews (80 soldiers). They report to Camp Roberts today for equipment distribution and will be assigned to the Line Fire on Thursday in support of CAL FIRE.
One military police company to support the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department with traffic control points in evacuated areas.

Wildfires trigger national emergency in South America

Hunter BasslerSeptember 8, 2024Safety, South America, WildfireLeave a comment

Bolivia declared a National Emergency on Saturday due to ongoing, near-record-breaking wildfires burning throughout the country, according to the country’s defense ministry.

Wildfires burned at least 3 million hectares (7.5 million acres) throughout Bolivia so far this year, the nation’s highest hectare total since 2010, according to Brazil’s space research agency Inep. The agency recorded over 56,000 fire outbreaks between January and Sept. 8, which is 20,000 outbreaks higher than the country’s yearly average and is already the country’s third-highest annual outbreak total since 1998.

Bolivia’s wildfire season usually peaks in August and September, but officials are already preparing to continue fighting fires until the year’s end. The country saw its highest number of October, November, and December fire outbreaks ever recorded last year at 12,453, 9,426, and 1,347 outbreaks respectively.

“The head of the Ministry of Defense explained that the national emergency will allow for a more agile and rapid dynamic in the procedures with countries interested in providing support to Bolivia to mitigate the fire,” the ministry’s statement read. “At the national level, there will be active and coordinated work with the governorates, municipalities, and institutions of the central government and others that have to do with mitigating fires, as well as attention to health and humanitarian issues for the affected populations and the firefighters who are working, said the authority.”

“Forest firefighters from the Armed Forces carry out NIGHT PATROLS to combat the fire in the Pantanal area, which includes the San Matías – Las Petas route, in the department of Santa Cruz” – Bolivia Ministry of Defense

South America’s highest wildfire activity so far this year are in Bolivia and areas of the Brazilian Amazon. Brazilian authorities also estimated 2024’s July was the worst July in two decades, with more than 22,000 active wildfires. Wildfire increases occurred around two weeks earlier than usual during fire season in the region, which historically has peaked in August and September.

Brazil’s above-average emissions are caused in part by wildfires burning across the Pantanal wetlands. The world’s largest tropical wetland and biodiversity haven has marked record-breaking wildfires this year, just four years after similar fires burned 13,300 acres of the preserve.

“We were just trying to recover from the 2020 fire, which devastated our Pantanal. We had not fully recovered and now we are facing this again,” said a volunteer firefighter with the Baia Negra Environmental Protection Area’s Association of Women Producers.

The Pantanal is the biome in Brazil that has dried up the most between 1985 and 2023. Annual water surface for the area last year was just under 944,000 acres — only 2 percent of the wetland biome was covered by water. The total is reportedly 61 percent under the historical average. The area was 50 percent drier in 2023 than it was in 2018 when the area’s last major flood happened.

READ MORE: World’s largest tropical wetland burned this year

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Oregon wildfire continues to grow toward nearby town as officials predict ‘increased fire behavior’

Hunter BasslerSeptember 5, 2024Evacuations, Oregon, Safety, Uncategorized, WildfireLeave a comment

The Rail Ridge Fire triggered evacuations for nearby Oregon communities and burned more than 82,000 acres as of Thursday morning. Several lightning strikes caused numerous fires to combine and become a single wildfire burning throughout the Ochoco National Forest & Crooked River National Grassland.

NIFC‘s infrared fire map estimates approximately 82,946 acres have burned so far, but numerous new fires were detected around the fire’s perimeter in every direction, including to the fire’s north around 10 miles away from the town of Dayville.

“Two Oregon State Fire Marshal Task Forces are being positioned for structure protection in the Dayville area,” the Grant County Emergency Management’s Facebook page posted Wednesday night. “Dayville is currently at a Level 2 “Be Set” evacuation notice.”

Current evacuations for the fire include all buildings in the Aldrich Mountain and eastern Crook County areas.

The Rail Ridge is made of multiple lightning fires that merged into one fire. When the lightning fires first started, they were growing quickly due to winds and warm weather. Credit: Inciweb

Officials first reported the fire on Sept. 2, but it quickly jumped the nearby John Day River near Martin Creek and burned into the Murderers Creek drainage, where it ballooned in size.

The Southern Area Gray IMT, led by Incident Commander Mitch Ketron, assumed command of the fire on Sept. 3 and are reportedly utilizing a full suppression strategy when possible with firefighter and public safety in mind, according to Inciweb. Continued dry and hot weather may continue increased fire behavior.

“Strategic burning operations will be utilized from control lines to remove unburned fuels between defensible barriers and the active fire front,” Ketron told Inciweb. “On the north end, the focus will be stopping the fire from spreading into the Deep Creek drainage to keep the fire away from structures in this area.”

The Bureau of Land Management also ordered an emergency public lands closure of multiple areas throughout Crook and Grant counties. Click here for the full details.

Credit: Grant County Emergency Management

USFS facing wage theft accusations from wildland firefighters

Hunter BasslerSeptember 3, 2024September 3, 2024Firefighter pay, Training, Union, WildfireLeave a comment

USFS Chief Randy Moore shared what some called a tone-deaf Labor Day celebratory press release the day after a federal employee union accused the agency Moore runs of continuing ongoing wildland firefighter wage theft.

“We commemorate the struggles Labor Movement activists undertook to provide all workers across our nation with a more fair, just and equitable workplace,” Moore’s post said on the USFS website.

The National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) said it’s facing one of those labor struggles under Moore’s leadership. The union saw the agency’s adoption of a new occupational series for wildland firefighters as a chance to end a decades-long tradition of wage theft, but numerous requests by the union went unanswered by the Service.

“After nearly three years of engagement…NFFE has determined it will not endorse the launch of the new series in its current form,” the union’s statement said. “Employees who volunteer to opt-in to the new series will still be performing duties without equal pay for substantially equal work in violation of law, rule, and regulation.”

Numerous aspects of wildland firefighter positions have either been misclassified or not included/graded by service administration, with the Forest Service not accurately calculating time-spent training for or performing major duties on the job, the union said. NFFE requested union employee representation to review and correct errors within the classifications, along with proper representation of EMT duties increasingly performed by wildland firefighters and adopting a career-ladder progression up to Grade 7.

NFFE said USFS failed to correct numerous errors in the new series, including:

Hotshot (IHC) Squadboss: Error in grading factor, Uncorrected.
Engine Assistant: Deceptive acronym used to hide supervisory duties.
Handcrew Assistant: Crew organized improperly to meet stated goals.
EMT: Major grade-controlling duty ignored.

Click here to see a full breakdown of each of NFFE’s issues.

Moore, in his Labor Day statement, specified that one of the labor movement’s pillars is fair pay for equitable labor while affirming some USFS employees still fail to meet that standard. He said Service leadership continues to work with Congress to “iron out a long-term solution for a permanent, competitive pay structure,” but NFFE’s recent statement makes it clear the union believes more needs to be done.

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