Latest Wildland fire suppression Stories

PORTLAND, Ore., Sept. 2 /PRNewswire/ --The summer of 2009 has been another season fighting inferno for Erickson Air-Crane, manufacturer of the world-renowned Helitanker and heavy-lift helicopters. As an essential tool for the Forest Service, the Aircranes are credited for helping contain several wildfires and are now hard at it on some of the worst fires of the season. In Southern California, four of Erickson's Helitankers are on the scenes battling several deadly wildfires which are...

Grants to Help Rural Companies Battle Forest Fires Across PA HARRISBURG, Pa., Aug. 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Department of Conservation and Natural Resources acting Secretary John Quigley announced that a record $604,710 has been awarded to help Pennsylvania's rural communities guard against fires in forests and other undeveloped areas. "A total of 162 volunteer fire companies serving rural areas and communities where forest fires are common will receive funds to help them battle fire...

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif., Aug. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- FireScope, a US-based developer of IT Service Management (ITSM) solutions, today announced its alliance with DLT Solutions. DLT is a leading provider of best-in-class IT products and services to the Federal industry. The partnership will allow more government agencies direct access to FireScope's award-winning solutions. "FireScope is very excited to join forces with DLT Solutions, a prominent leader in their sector," says Steven Cotton, CEO...

Officials fear Australian could suffer even worse wildfires next summer than the deadly blazes that killed a record 173 people in February, AFP reported.The fire season could be the toughest in a decade, according to Victoria state premier John Brumby.Brumby said the prognosis in terms of this year's fire season is that it's going to be a "very, very tough fire season again.""All of the advice at the moment is that this will be as bad, if not worse, than anything that we've seen in...

Resulting smoke and other particles from more fires could diminish air qualityAs the climate warms in the coming decades, atmospheric scientists at Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and their colleagues expect that the frequency of wildfires will increase in many regions. The spike in the number of fires could also adversely affect air quality due to the greater presence of smoke.The study, led by SEAS Senior Research Fellow Jennifer Logan, was published in the...

The area of forest burnt by wildfires in the United States is set to increase by over 50% by 2050, according to research by climate scientists.The study predicts that the worst affected areas will be the forests in the Pacific Northwest and the Rocky Mountains, where the area of forest destroyed by wildfire is predicted to increase by 78% and 175% respectively.The research is based on a conservative temperature increase of 1.6 degrees Celsius over the next 40 years.Published in the Journal...

U.S. scientists say they've determined climate -- not high temperatures or longer fire seasons -- is the most significant factor in wildfires. Scientists at the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station and from the University of Washington said the recent increase in area burned by wildfires in the Western United States is a product of a complex relationship between climate and fuels that varies among different ecosystems/ We found that what matters most in accounting for...

Study finds that climate's influence on production, drying of fuels -- not higher temperatures or longer fire seasons alone -- critical determinant of Western wildfire burned areaThe recent increase in area burned by wildfires in the Western United States is a product not of higher temperatures or longer fire seasons alone, but a complex relationship between climate and fuels that varies among different ecosystems, according to a study conducted by U.S. Forest Service and university...

A wildfire rages across southern California wildlands towards residential communities, endangering residents and firefighters and sending property up in smoke. This is an increasingly common story, occurring several times a summer. To better understand these Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) fires and how best to prevent or fight them, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have issued an in-depth study on fire behavior and defensive actions taken in a...

U.S. researchers are criticizing federal wildfire mitigation efforts, saying only 11 percent have occurred near homes or offices during the last five years. The analysis of the U.S. National Fire plan, led by the University of Colorado-Boulder, shows although more people now live in or near fire-prone forests, most federally funded activities to reduce wildfire hazards have occurred far from the wildland-urban interface, researchers said. Our comprehensive analysis suggests that fire...