wildfires

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Plane Fighting Yosemite Fire Crashes, Killing Pilot

Officials don't know yet what caused the air tanker to go down

(Newser) - An air tanker fighting a wildfire at Yosemite National Park mysteriously crashed yesterday, killing the pilot, the Los Angeles Times reports. A spokesman for the state's Department of Forestry and Fire Protection says it's believed the pilot was alone in the plane and that he worked for DynCorp...

Man Accused of Arson in California's Raging Wildfire

37-year-old allegedly set fast-growing King Fire

(Newser) - A 37-year-old man is being held on $10 million bail and accused of deliberately setting a California wildfire that is now rapidly growing in size. Authorities aren't saying what led them to Wayne Huntsman or how he allegedly started the fire, only that an investigator followed up on several...

Anti-Wildfire Project Tabled Over Rare Frogs

Forest Service project may hurt endangered species

(Newser) - US officials are balancing forest-fire risk against the need to preserve an endangered species near Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevadas, the Tahoe Daily Tribune reports. Per a stipulation signed by a judge last week, the US Forest Service will delay its tree-thinning project there until it consults with the...

Power Company Pays $470M Over Fire That Killed 119

Black Saturday payout is biggest in Aussie history

(Newser) - Australian power company SP AusNet hasn't officially accepted responsibility for a wildfire that killed 119 people near Melbourne in early 2009—but it has agreed to pay $470 million to survivors in the biggest class-action settlement in the country's history. Some 10,000 plaintiffs accused the firm of...

Alaska Wildfire Is Bigger Than Chicago

Area with 1K structures evacuated as blaze spreads

(Newser) - A huge fire burning in Alaska's Kenai National Wildlife Refuge has exploded in size and now covers 243 square miles—an area bigger than the city of Chicago. The Funny River fire in the heavily forested reserve south of Anchorage is just 30% contained and authorities have ordered the...

Okla. Wildfire Kills Man Who Refused to Leave Home

Controlled burn sparked the blaze

(Newser) - A controlled burn that got out of control sparked a wildfire that has burned through 4,000 acres in Oklahoma, and one man is dead after refusing to evacuate his Guthrie home yesterday. The man, 56, has not been identified. A thousand other Logan County residents have evacuated, KOCO reports,...

Forest Fire Rages Through Chilean Port City, Kills 4
16 Dead as Chile's Historic Valparaiso Burns
UPDATED
Apr 13, 2014 11:44 AM CDT

16 Dead as Chile's Historic Valparaiso Burns

500 homes destroyed so far in Valparaiso

(Newser) - Chile has been rocked by earthquakes lately , and now a fire raging in the colorful port city of Valparaiso has killed at least 16 people and destroyed 500 homes, President Michelle Bachelet said today. More than 10,000 people have been evacuated, including more than 200 female inmates at a...

Two-Thirds of Americans Exposed to Wildfire Smoke

Health hazard spans farther than people think, warns report

(Newser) - The US is going to experience more and more wildfires in the coming years, and that's going to pose a much bigger health risk than you might assume, the Natural Resources Defense Council warned in a new report today. Nearly 212 million Americans—or about two-thirds of us—lived...

Sydney Battles Worst Fires in 'Living Memory'

1 killed in New South Wales blazes

(Newser) - The Australian state of New South Wales is grappling with wildfires that have decimated homes and killed a man. Nearly 100 fires have taken hold, with 34 still out of control yesterday, firefighters said, per CNN . Hundreds of homes may have been destroyed already, they noted. Some 200 square miles...

We're Fighting Fires With Antique Planes

US Forest Service also uses parts pulled from museums

(Newser) - When the US Forest Service battled wildfires near Yosemite National Park in August, it did so with a fleet of restored tankers first built in the 1950s. The planes help firefighters on the ground by dropping thousands of gallons of retardant ahead of blazes, but critics say the tankers are...

Hunter Started Yosemite Fire: Feds

Campfire apparently got away from him

(Newser) - Looks like it wasn't an illegal pot farm after all : The gigantic wildfire in and around Yosemite National Park began when a hunter allowed an illegal fire to escape, the US Forest Service said today. No arrests have been made, and the hunter's name was being withheld pending...

There's an Upside to Yosemite Wildfire

It could restore the forest's ecosystem back to its natural state

(Newser) - The Atlantic goes looking for some silver lining to the Yosemite wildfire , and finds this: Carl Skinner, a US Forest Service ecologist, has discovered that the forest has been altered over the past 100 years due to human intervention into naturally occurring forest fires, becoming less diverse. So the current...

Yosemite Fire Will Burn for 18 More Days

It's now the 4th-largest fire in California history

(Newser) - California's Rim Fire is now 45% contained, but it's still getting bigger—so big, in fact, that it's now the fourth-largest the state has ever seen, the AP reports. It now covers 351 square miles; that's more ground than San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose combined,...

Rim Fire May Have Started on Illegal Pot Farm: Official

California's national parks are full of them, say authorities

(Newser) - A fire chief in California's Tuolumne County quietly revealed an interesting tidbit about the origins of the Rim Fire last week, the San Jose Mercury News reports: officials suspect it was started by marijuana growers. "We don't know the exact cause," he told a town meeting,...

Wildfire Smoke Reaches Yosemite Valley

Popular tourist area affected for first time

(Newser) - Smoke from a wildfire in and around Yosemite National Park is hampering both suppression efforts and the views sought by holiday weekend tourists. Park spokeswoman Kari Cobb said smoke from the 2-week-old blaze obscured Yosemite Valley for the first time today. The valley is home to the park's most...

Yosemite Firefighters' Plan: Set More Fires

Rim Fire could be fully contained by Sept. 10, officials say

(Newser) - The giant Rim Fire near Yosemite is still growing—it's now the sixth-largest in California history—but it's also slowing, and firefighters expect to have the 301-square-mile blaze fully contained by Sept. 10, the Los Angeles Times reports. How will they do it? By setting more fires inside...

Protecting Yosemite: Predator Drone, Elite Native American Crew

Firefighters have to mind restrictions in the national park

(Newser) - Firefighters now have about 23% of the Yosemite wildfire contained, and news outlets are spinning off plenty of interesting stories about the battle:
  • Native American crew: Among the teams fighting the fire is the Geronimo Hotshots, an elite crew of American Indians from the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in
...

California Fire Damaging Air in Nevada

And it has a clear path deeper into Yosemite

(Newser) - The wildfire threatening Yosemite National Park is throwing so much smoke into the air that it is significantly hurting the air quality in Nevada—more than 100 miles away. Reno and Carson City issued emergency warnings over the smoke from the Rim Fire, and school children were kept inside for...

Yosemite Fire 'Will Burn Until Snow Flies'

But firefighters are gaining ground

(Newser) - The giant Rim fire near Yosemite National Park has now scorched an area the size of Chicago and is still growing, but firefighters are making steady progress. Officials say the fire is now around 20% contained and the 3,700 firefighters battling it are gaining ground as the blaze climbs...

Today Crucial in Yosemite Fire Battle

Rim fire still growing amid strong winds

(Newser) - The massive wildfire raging in and around Yosemite National Park is still growing, and forecasters warn that today will pose a huge challenge for firefighters. Progress has been made at the western edge of the fire, but it is still pushing to the north and east and strong winds spreading...

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