Wildland firefighters with cancer can now get $450K from the US government

Wildland firefighters who have been diagnosed with or killed by a smoke-related cancer are now eligible for a nearly $450,000 payment from the federal government.

The Honoring Our Fallen Heroes Act, passed as one of the many parts of the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act by President Donald Trump on Thursday, covers around 20 different “exposure-related” cancers under the Public Safety Officers’ Benefits program, which provides benefits to federal, state, and local officials who are killed or injured in the line of duty. Before the law, firefighters were generally only covered by the program if they were physically injured in the line of duty or died from heart attacks, strokes, or mental health conditions like PTSD.

Eligible wildland firefighters can get a one-time tax-free payment of $448,575, the max benefit for the program in Fiscal Year 2025, and four years of higher education financial support for their children or spouse. Families of wildland firefighters who have died within the last six years are also eligible for the benefits.

Firefighters must meet the following criteria to be eligible for the benefits:

  • The firefighter’s exposure occurred while they were engaged in the line of duty
  • The firefighter began serving in the position no fewer than 5 years before the diagnosis or death
  • The firefighter was diagnosed with cancer not more than 15 years after their last date of active service
  • The cancer directly results in death or permanent and total disability of the firefighter

Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) co-sponsored the legislation with Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) in honor of Michael Paidar, a St. Paul fire captain who died of an aggressive form of Acute Myeloid Leukemia on August 26, 2020, while still working for the fire department, the senator said in a press release.

“This is a critical victory for our firefighters who put their lives on the line every day to keep us safe, and for their loved ones,” Klobuchar said in the press release. “This bipartisan legislation will ensure that the Public Safety Officers’ Benefits Program covers service-related cancers—honoring the commitment we make to our firefighters like Captain Paidar and other first responders who made the ultimate sacrifice.”

Eligible firefighters can apply for the benefits on the Public Safety Officers’ Benefits program website. Click here to access it.

Burn scars in western US snow regions to further strain water supplies, research shows

Whitetail Fire South Dakota

Snowpacks in western United States are projected to decline in size and melt earlier when high emissions climate scenarios are combined with more wildfires, putting an increasing strain on vital water resources.

Research in Science Advances notes that wildfires are increasingly burning in snow-dominated watersheds and are altering the dynamics of snow melt. Snowpacks, a vital water resource that recharges aquifers and sustains streamflow during drier months, are projected to decline in the western United States by between 40 to 75% by 2100 under high emissions climate scenarios.

Snowmelt timing and magnitude are major controls on reservoir storage for municipal water supply, agricultural use, hydroelectric power generation, and flood control. Warmer temperatures and expanding population pressures are only increasing these demands. In the western US, snowmelt-derived runoff from mountainous regions contributes up to 70% of total annual flow.

Burned area in western forest snowpack areas has increased by 9% annually between 1984 and 2017, with areas above 2500 m with historically reliable snowpack seeing the largest relative increase in burned area.

Previous research has claimed that the specific day when all snow has completely melted away is occurring earlier and earlier each year in postfire environments. A primary driver of increased snowmelt is due to the black carbon and other charred woody debris shed by burned trees and vegetation onto the snow surface, decreasing the amount of solar radiation snow can reflect and increasing the amount of energy snow absorbs.

Researchers from the Colorado Schools of Mines and the University of Colorado, however, said that previous research has focused on only one to three fires in specific areas, rather than adopting a larger-scale approach. Those researchers have since published their own larger-scale study, using two statistical models and satellite imagery to provide a western US–wide analysis on snowpack in burned areas. They found in virtually every region that has snowpack, snow melts earlier in the first year after a fire than in non-burned areas.

“The Pacific Northwest and northern Sierra Nevada are most vulnerable to snow disappearing up to two weeks earlier after a fire,” the study said. “Additionally, California and Oregon have the largest additional change in the effect of fire on [the snow disappearance date] under +2°C of warming, while the Intermountain West (Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming) experiences small additional earlier melt. In warmer environments, snow disappearance due to postfire energy balance changes can even occur in midwinter, disrupting the anticipated timing of snowmelt runoff.”

Click here to read the full research paper.

Global wildfire management resolution passed by UN environmental conference, led by India

A landmark effort toward fighting wildfires on a global scale took another step forward after a new resolution was passed at the seventh United Nations Environmental Assembly conference in Nairobi, Kenya.

The resolution, drafted and led by India, received wide support from participating nations and aims to strengthen international cooperation and coordinated action for wildfire management, according to a press release from India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

India’s resolution drew attention to the UN Environmental Programme’s “Spreading Like Wildfire” global report from 2022, which warned that global wildfires are projected to rise by 14% by 2030, 30% by 2050, and 50% by 2100 if current trends continue. The report also called on governments throughout the world to adopt a new “Fire Ready Formula” with two-thirds of wildfire-focused funding to be devoted to planning, prevention, preparedness, and recovery, with the other one-third focused on response, compared to current funding models where response receives over half of related funding.

India emphasized, in its push for the resolution, that the projections emphasize the escalating frequency and severity of wildfires represent a long-term global risk and require urgent coordinated international action.

“Each year, millions of hectares of land are affected by fires, causing enormous destruction to forests, biodiversity, water resources, soil health, air quality, and livelihoods,” the ministry’s press release said. “Wildfires also release significant greenhouse gases, weaken carbon sinks, and heavily impact forest-dependent communities and national economies.”

The resolution built on and strengthened the UN’s Global Fire Management Hub, which was established in 2023 to bring together member nations to assist countries in building wildfire management capacities through knowledge sharing, developing risk assessments, and encouraging policy support. The resolution specifically enhanced international cooperation on climate finance, early-warning systems, satellite-based monitoring, and ecosystem restoration.

Click here to read India’s full recently passed resolution.

Quest for ‘Holy Grail’ of wildland firefighting safety awarded NASA contract

For a decade before Wildfire Today Founder and wildland firefighting stalwart Bill Gabbert’s death, he wrote numerous articles on what he called the “Holy Grail of wildland firefighting safety.”

Gabbert described this Grail as a system that could track the real-time location of firefighters and the wildfire they were fighting. The data should then be available in real time to key supervisors and decision makers involved in the operations and planning sections of wildfire response.

“It can save lives. There is no acceptable excuse for not getting this done,” Gabbert said in a 2019 article, explaining his “Holy Grail” definition. “The five federal land management agencies and the states with significant numbers of wildland firefighters need to implement a Holy Grail system as soon as possible … Government officials who drag their feet on this should have trouble sleeping at night.”

A company claimed to Wildfire Today that it is closer to making this quest a reality. RoGO Communications, which focuses on developing safety technology for firefighters and first responders, was recently awarded a NASA Small Business Innovation Research contract to develop its “DropBlock 2.0.”

The tool, which is about as big as three smartphones stacked on top of each other, would enable all deployed personnel to see near-real-time GPS locations for all firefighters and fire assets, such as bulldozers, water tenders, fire engines, high-value structures, medical evacuation and rescue sites, and makeshift water resources, along with the fire’s current location.

DropBlock would also share hyper-local fire weather information, including wind speed, direction, temperature, humidity, and other sensor data. RoGO also plans to release a mobile phone app in early 2026 that enables point-to-point communications among DropBlocks and crews, and plans to expand support to other first responders for hurricanes, earthquakes and floods.

DropBlocks went through Phase I, or discovery, portion of the NASA contract in the third quarter of 2024. The technology is now in Phase II, or the building phase, and will continue in that phase over the next two years, RoGO told Wildfire Today. Afterwards, it will go into the third and final phase to commercialize it within the new U.S. Wildland Fire Service. RoGO CEO Rod Goossen also told Wildfire Today he is speaking with partners in Canada, Australia, and other U.S. allied nations for the possible deployment of DropBlock there.

RoGO formed after Arizona’s 2013 Yarnell Hill Fire, which became the sixth deadliest firefighting disaster in United States history after it killed 19 firefighters. The tragedy and the five firefighters who died in the Esperanza Fire also caused Gabbert to begin speaking about the Grail.

“All of this technology exists. It would be expensive to implement, but it could save lives,” Gabbert said in 2013.

Idaho to ‘double’ logging efforts under new USFS wildfire agreement

Sheep Fire INL smoke fire

The United States Forest Service announced a new wildfire risk reduction agreement with Idaho officials on Friday that will, in part, double the state’s current timber production.

The USFS and Idaho committed to increasing an annual sustainable timber sale volume of up to 100 million board feet within five years, which would be double the state’s current output, according to a press release from the Service. Officials said the agreement supports President Donald Trump’s Expansion of Timber Production Executive Order to increase timber harvests on national forests by 25% by 2028.

“For too long, federal red tape and hands-off policies left our forests overgrown and our communities at risk,” U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said in the press release. “By doubling timber production through Good Neighbor Authority and speeding up active management, we’re protecting Idaho families, supporting rural jobs, and making our forests stronger for generations to come.”

Idaho Governor Brad Little previously signed his own “Make Forests Healthy Again Act” executive order in April to increase collaboration between the state and federal government for the purpose of wildfire reduction and general forest management.

The governor held a press conference announcing the new agreement on Friday, calling the agreement essential to meeting the “forest health crisis” on federally owned land.

“Years of inadequate management have led to millions of acres of forest service lands becoming high-risk for insects, disease, and wildfires,” Little said at the press conference. “Idahoans are tired of megafires, endless smoke, and soaring suppression costs. We have a rare opportunity to shift the trajectory.”

The increased logging may face legal hurdles. Multiple conservation groups in nearby Montana recently sued the USFS over a logging road project on their state’s border with Idaho, according to BYU-Idaho Radio. The Beaverhead-Deer Lodge National Forest recently signed off on a new project to burn trees and put new logging roads in the Continental Divide, which the groups say will inflict unnecessary danger to local wildlife, including endangered grizzly bears and sage grouse.

Democrats demand answers for Trump’s cutbacks at the USFS

Wolf Trap National prescribed fire

A letter signed by 12 Democratic Senators is demanding answers from U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz after a report found that the Service is far behind its usual wildfire risk reduction efforts across the nation, stemming from the administration’s mass layoffs.

The letter demanded the answers to multiple questions, including the number of vacant wildland firefighter positions, whether current staffing levels are sufficient to meet current wildfire risk, and the total number of acres treated over the past calendar year. It was written by Senate Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Jeff Merkley from Oregon, Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota, and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Martin Heinrich from New Mexico, and signed by nine others.

The concerns addressed in the letter stem directly from an analysis by Grassroots Wildland Firefighters that showed hazardous fuel reduction work across National Forest lands was down 38% in 2025 compared with the same period over the previous four years. Fuel reductions between June and August were barely half of what they were compared to previous summers.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: USFS far behind usual hazardous fuel treatments nationwide, due to DOGE cuts

“You have continued to maintain that the Forest Service has adequate resources and staffing to manage wildfire preparedness and response on federal lands, and that, while the Forest Service is significantly behind on hazardous fuels reduction work overall, there have been more positive results in certain regions like the Pacific Northwest,” the Senators said in their letter.

“You have also claimed that in certain Western states, the Forest Service has even exceeded annual hazardous fuels reduction goals. However, it appears that to make these claims, you are referencing all Fiscal Year 2025 data, which began under the Biden Administration and includes five months of work prior to the beginning of the Trump Administration and its mass staff firings, forced retirements, and unnecessary pauses on projects.”

Grassroots’ analysis blamed the personnel and budget cuts to the USFS that Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, made at the start of the new administration. Around 6,000 United States Department of Agriculture employees were terminated on February 13 before an independent federal court ordered the department to rehire all 6,000 employees a month later. Grassroots previously told Wildfire Today that around 75% of the temporarily terminated employees had secondary wildland fire duties.

The Senators gave Schultz a deadline of December 12 to answer their questions.

Alaska’s largest city to update decades-old wildfire plan after several record-setting seasons

Pyrocumulonimbus cloud / smoke from the MacDonald fire south of Fairbanks, Alaska, which ignited on June 8, 2024. The fire burned the Tanana Flats Military Training Area and grew to more than 172,000 acres before merging with the Clear Creek fire. The fire was caused by lightning and was propelled by strong winds and dry conditions.

Anchorage is set to update its city-wide wildfire plan after nearly 20 years to face the increasing threat of wildfires throughout the state.

Alaska has experienced several record-setting fire seasons over the past two decades, including 6.6 million acres burned in 2004, 5.1 million in 2015, 2.9 million in 2019, and 1.7 million in 2022, according to the city’s new community wildfire protection plan. The United States Department of Agriculture’s Climate Hubs said most of the increase in the state’s burned area has been in tundra and boreal forests.

“From 2000 to 2020, 2.5 times more acres in Alaska burned than in the previous 20 years, and 3 of the 4 highest-acreage fire years have occurred since 2000,” the Department said on its website. “By 2050, burned area is projected to increase by 24 to 169% in Alaska. Changes in climate will cause longer wildfire seasons, increased fire frequency, size, and total area burned, and possibly increased wildfire severity.”

The state also had an early season in 2025, which forced its famous Iditarod Sled Dog Race to change, and was attributed to early snowmelt.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Early Alaska wildfire season has quick snowmelt to blame

“These evolving conditions continue to affect life safety, forest health, air quality, and overall community resilience,” the Anchorage document said. “This plan represents a proactive step toward a more wildfire-resilient Anchorage, developed collaboratively by the Anchorage Fire Department and partner agencies.”

City officials presented the plan to community members at a town hall on Nov. 12, which aims to provide an analysis of fire behavior across the city by grouping the most densely populated areas into suppression planning units with similar wildfire hazards and recommending actions to reduce those hazards.

Click here to read the more on the Community Wildfire Protection Plan.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Circumpolar wildland fire and permafrost thaw – Global climate implications: Wildfires in the Arctic

California wildfires would be worsened under Cal Fire’s plan, court rules

A Cal Fire plan aimed at addressing Southern California’s wildfire crisis would actually make it worse, according to the San Diego Superior Court.

The court found the agency’s plan to reduce wildfire risk in the region by clearing vegetation would heighten wildfire risk, according to journalist Noah Haggerty with the Los Angeles Times. The judgment was delivered after a 5-year-long legal action filed by the California Chaparral Institute and the Endangered Habitats League against Cal Fire’s Board of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The agency’s Vegetation Management Program, in part, focuses on cutting fuel breaks in Southern California’s native chaparral ecosystems, according to the report. The court agreed with the plaintiffs that the plan would let non-native and fast-growing plants take chaparral grasses’ place.

Cal Fire argued that it addressed this issue in its environmental impact review, but the plaintiffs said the agency didn’t take into account that the invasive grasses that take chaparral’s place are much more flammable and subsequently increase fire risk.

The court ordered Cal Fire to address the potential for plant type conversion to worsen wildfire risk and, until it does, it won’t be able to rely on its blanket environmental review to comply with the state’s environmental quality act.

Click here to read the full article.

Spain’s historic wildfire season may soon get relief, forecasters say

Spain has never seen a wildfire season like 2025.

The nation, on average, only sees around 15,000 burnt acres (6,000 hectares) by Aug. 19, according to the European Union’s Earth observation arm. So far in 2025, the nation has experienced 437,000 burnt acres (177,000 hectares).

Spain’s totals have skewed wildfire data throughout the EU. Officials on Tuesday said wildfires have burned 2,389,573 acres (967,026 hectares) since the beginning of the year. That is much more than the average of 602,964 acres (244,011 hectares) recorded at this time of year over the past 19 years.

Spain and surrounding nations may soon see some relief from fire weather, while others in northern Europe see an increase in risk, according to the EU’s Joint Research Centre.

“Conditions are expected to ease across most of southern Europe and FWI anomalies may drop in the Iberian Peninsula, France, Italy, the Balkans, and Greece,” the Centre said. “In contrast, very high to very extreme anomalies are expected in Ireland, United Kingdom, and Northwest Europe (Belgium, The Netherlands, northern Germany, Poland, Denmark and parts of Sweden and Finland). Large with high to very extreme FWI anomalies are also expected along the Danube basin in Austria, Hungary, and Romania.”

Spain recently made EU history when it made its first request ever for wildfire response reinforcements from the EU’s Civil Protection Mechanism. In response to Spain’s activation, the European Commission has mobilized two rescEU planes stationed in France, with the expectation of deploying to Spain on Aug. 14.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: For the first time, Spain seeks support from European allies to fight forest fires, joining multiple other nations

Canadian First Nations’ diesel dependance offers transitional opportunity for wildfire reductions

Around 200,000 people in Canada live in diesel-dependent communities, most of whom are Indigenous and face major challenges. A new report claims that a transition to a more environmentally friendly fuel source could also reduce their wildfire risk.

The recent paper, published in the Communications Earth & Environment journal, identified dual benefits if Canada’s First Nations transitioned away from diesel fuels to “fire-smart” fuels.

Around 70% of the Indigenous communities within the country are off Canada’s electricity grid and are dependent on diesel-powered generators as their main sources of both power and heat, causing energy insecurity problems and worsening climate change.

“Diesel-dependent remote communities pay approximately 2–6 times more for energy…than the average Canadian, even with subsidies,” the report said. “Since 2017, the Government of Canada, has supported over one hundred clean energy projects, including bioenergy via its Clean Energy for Rural and Remote Communities program and many fire-prone communities have expressed the need to integrate local biomass management with wildland fire management plans.”

“They found that 30 of the 33 communities could meet their annual energy needs by harvesting less than 1% of their local biomass.”

The researchers identified 33 diesel-dependent communities at high wildfire risk due to the accumulation of flammable forest fuels. They found that 30 of the 33 communities could meet their annual energy needs by harvesting less than 1% of their local biomass. If communities made such a transition from diesel to wood-based bioenergy, the researchers said their energy insecurity issues and wildfire risk would be greatly reduced.

Canadian Forest Service Landscape Restoration Researcher Nicolas Mansuy told WildfireToday that there are numerous barriers for diesel-dependent communities that want to transition to new energy sources, including:

  • Infrastructure and logistics constraints
  • Technical capacity and skilled labor
  • Long-term funding and operational support
  • Policy and regulatory barriers
  • Community readiness and energy planning gaps
  • Lack of reliable and localized data

The nation’s Clean Energy for Rural and Remote Communities program, however, can help expand the transition, according to Mansuy. The program already supports bioenergy projects and encourages communities to use local feedstocks from local forest management, salvage logging, and fuel treatments.

The study claims to be the first Canada-wide assessment of potential biomass extraction for bioenergy and wildfire risk mitigation.

“Although we conducted the analysis on a limited number of off-grid communities, our findings clearly demonstrate that remote off-grid communities, which are predominantly Indigenous, face the dual threats of wildfire and energy insecurity,” the researchers said. “Given the growing wildfire risk and the need for energy security in Indigenous communities, Indigenous leadership, and collaboration with wildland fire agencies, are essential for developing integrated fuel management strategies and identifying synergies with the bioenergy sector.”

Click here to read the full study.

https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02313-1