Russian fire chief arrested over out of control wildfires

Putin meets with residents
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with local residents and officials of the region at a temporary shelter for people affected by recent wildfires in Abakan, the Republic of Khakassia, April 21, 2015. Photo provided by the Kremlin.

From the Moscow Times:

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“Shortly after President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that officials should be held responsible for damage caused by recent wildfires in a southern Siberian region, investigators said the head of a local fire department had been arrested for negligence.

Viktor Zenkov, a district firefighting head in the Khakasia region, “did not personally go to the area affected by the fires or arrange for people and their property to be saved,” federal Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said in a statement, adding that the arrest was one of several being made.

The wildfires, believed to have originated as small-scale agricultural grass burning that grew out of control amid abnormally dry conditions, have killed at least 31 people and left about 5,000 people homeless in the region in recent weeks.

During a visit to the region on Tuesday, Putin told Governor Viktor Zimin that firefighting officials should be evaluated “for what they did and didn’t do,” state media reported. The president also told Zimin to promptly distribute aid payments to the victims of the fires and rebuild their homes.

The governor assured Putin that within the next three days the regional government will have paid 90 percent of those individuals entitled to compensation, state news agency TASS reported.

The governor said that 1,722 payments ranging in size from $200 to $2,000 have already been made. He added that the local administration was prepared to rebuild the victims’ homes by the Sept. 1 deadline set by the president.

Putin said he would return to the region in about two months to check on the progress of the work, according to a statement on the regional administration’s website. Last week during his annually televised call-in show, Putin promised $100 million in federal aid to the region.”

Siberia fire
The aftermath of one of the wildfires in Siberia. Siberia Times photo.

Vehicles driving through a wildfire in Russia

The video shows vehicles driving through a wildfire on April 13, 2015 near the suburban village of Zabaykalets in eastern Siberia. Over the last week wildfires in the region have killed 15 people and destroyed 1,000 structures.

At 0:50 a vehicle can be seen that appears to have something burning on its roof.

Wildfires in Siberia sweep through 20 towns

Siberia fire

In this undated photo taken from the site of the Ministry for Emergency Situations, on Sunday, April 12, 2015, a firefighter extinguishes a wildfire in Khakassia. The government of the Siberian region reports that more than 70 people have been injured by agricultural fires that got out of control and swept through 20 towns and villages. The fires were started by farmers burning the grass in their fields, but they spread quickly because of strong winds. The government of Khakassia has called on all residents to help put out the fires, which on Sunday destroyed 118 homes in 21 towns and villages.

Reuters reports that four people have been killed by the fires in southern Siberia.

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UPDATED April 13, 2015:

Photo provided by the Ministry for Emergency Situations, Khakassia branch.

Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Dick.

Wildfire briefing, April 3, 2014

Three firefighters injured in South Carolina

Three firefighters were injured while fighting a 12-acre wildfire that spread to a structure in Florence County, South Carolina late Wednesday afternoon. One firefighter suffered second and third degree burns to his face and neck while suppressing fire in a mobile home.

wistv.com – Columbia, South Carolina |

Arizona Forestry Division outlines changes for 2014

According to an article at KNAU, Arizona State Forester Scott Hunt told reporters on Wednesday:

“Our first priority is firefighter and public safety. And it’s always going to be our first priority,” he said.

But, Hunt did say that he expects when there is an initial report of a fire that there will “heavier responses” than in the past.

On June 30, 2013, 19 firefighters were killed on the Yarnell Hill Fire which was being managed by the Arizona Forestry Division.

Los Alamos National Laboratory under pressure to move radioacitve waste before wildfire season

From TheState.com:

Los Alamos is under a tight deadline to get nuclear waste off its northern New Mexico campus before wildfire season peaks, and the New Mexico dump [temporarily closed due to a fire] is the federal government’s only permanent repository for waste from decades of nuclear-bomb building.

Aerial firefighting training for California National Guard

California National Guard aerial firefighting training
File photo of California National Guard aerial firefighting training, April, 2010. Photo by Bob Martinez.

Helicopter units of the California National Guard are scheduled to conduct their annual aerial firefighting training Friday through Sunday at the CAL FIRE academny in Ione.

Colorado Senate passes funding bill for aerial firefighting

The Colorado state Senate on Thursday passed a bill that would provide $21 million for a portion of the aerial firefighting program recommended by the Colorado Firefighting Air Corp (CFAC) in a report the agency released on March 28. The funds would enable contracting for four helicopters, four Single Engine Air Tankers, and the purchase of two fixed wing aircraft for fire detection and remote sensing, but not for the two large air tankers called for in the report.

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, who has been quoted as saying farmers and ranchers should be the state’s first defense against wildfires, is opposed to spending the additional $11.9 million for contracting for two large air tankers.

Wildfire season begins early in Russia

From ITAR-TASS:

Forest fires have broken out early in a season dubbed “tense this year”, Minister of Natural Resources Sergei Donskoi told a conference chaired by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and addressing preparations for difficult days ahead.

“The situation is tense in Russia this year. Because of low precipitation, the season has begun almost 1.5 months ahead of the norm,” the minister said. Seventeen fires have already been registered across a territory of 2,000 hectares, the minister said.

Citing reasons for danger, the minister noted an early spring and a shallow layer of frozen soil. This was only 40-50% of normal levels and was leaving dry surface soil.

The Ministry of Natural Resources has adopted an inter-regional fire prevention plan employing an additional 3,000-strong contingent of firefighters, 800 units of firefighting equipment and 4,000 fire extinguishers, the minister said.

Russia has the most severe fire season in a decade

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Satellite photo, fires in Russia, September 11, 2012
Satellite photo, fires in Russia, September 11, 2012. NASA (click to enlarge)

The photo above, taken by NASA’s MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) satellite on September 11, got my attention due to it’s artistic nature. I have seen a lot of satellite photos of fires, but this one has the added element of swirling clouds above the smoke created by multiple fires below…. almost like it was done by an artist. These fires are burning in Tomsk, a region of south central Siberia where severe wildfires have burned throughout the summer.

More than 17,000 wildfires had burned more than 30 million hectares (74 million acres) through August 2012, according to researchers at the Sukachev Institute of Forest in the Russian Academy of Sciences. In comparison, 20 million hectares burned last year, which was roughly the average between 2000 and 2008, according to an analysis of MODIS data.

Russia is experiencing the most severe fire season in a decade. Most of the fires are burning taiga in remote parts of eastern and central Siberia.

Russian helicopter down in Turkey

Five people including three Russian firefighters were killed in the crash of a firefighting helicopter in the Koycegiz district of the Turkish province of Mugla. Radio Free Europe reported that the Russian helicopter was operated on the fire by Turkish and Russian crew members.

Turkey’s Forestry and Water Ministry says the helicopter crashed as it was headed into a valley fighting a fire near the village of Karacam. The Turkish Weekly reported that the helicopter hit a mountain slope and rolled down into a ravine. “The Kamov Ka-32 helicopter belonged to the Nefteyugansk Air Group,” said a Rosaviatsia spokesman. “The helicopter flew seven forest firefighting missions in the area through the day.”

A report by the Anatolia News Agency said the crash occurred near Otmanlar Village; the Russian-made Ka-32T helicopter crashed near the Kepez fire tower.

There were no survivors. A team of rescue workers is attempting to reach the crash site.