Poison Oak Effects Hundreds of Firefighters on Wildland Frontlines

Poison Oak Effects Hundreds of Firefighters on Wildland Frontlines

06 August 2017

USA – Crews battling two large wildfires in California found themselves suffering from exposure to poison oak.

Fire officials said over 400 firefighters had to be treated after coming into contact with the plant at the Alamo and Whittier Fires in Santa Barbara County earlier this summer.

“Poison oak is just a hazard of the job..there’s poison oak on almost every fire we go on here on the Central Coast,” Santa Barbara County firefighter Danny Haynes told local television station KEYT.

Haynes said he suffers the symptoms on a lot of fires, which could be contracted from direct contact with the plants, hose or equipment that came in contact with plants.

“For me it’ll often get on my face, my eyes will swell, I’ll get a bad rash on my arms or wherever it touches,” he said.

He’s been treated for exposure following his work at the Alamo and Whittier fires.

He added that firefighters can inhale smoke from the burning poison oak and suffered symptoms in the lungs.

“You have to push through it,” Haynes added. “You’re out there and you’re in it and you just deal with it and keep doing your job,” Haynes said.

An international team of climate researchers from the US, South Korea and the UK has developed a new wildfire and drought prediction model for southwestern North America. Extending far beyond the current seasonal forecast, this study published in the journal Scientific Reports could benefit the economies with a variety of applications in agriculture, water management and forestry.

Over the past 15 years, California and neighboring regions have experienced heighteneddrought conditions and an increase inwildfire numbers with considerable impacts on human livelihoods, agriculture, and terrestrial ecosystems. This new research shows that in addition to a discernible contribution from natural forcings and human-induced global warming, the large-scale difference between Atlantic and Pacific ocean temperatures plays a fundamental role in causing droughts, and enhancing wildfire risks.

“Our results document that a combination of processes is at work. Through an ensemble modeling approach, we were able to show that without anthropogenic effects, the droughts in the southwestern United States would have been less severe,” says co-author Axel Timmermann, Director of the newly founded IBS Center for Climate Physics, within the Institute for Basics Science (IBS), and Distinguished Professor at Pusan National University in South Korea. “By prescribing the effects of man-made climate change and observed global ocean temperatures, our model can reproduce the observed shifts in weather patterns and wildfire occurrences.”

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-07-atlanticpacific-ocean-temperature-difference-fuels.html#jCpAn international team of climate researchers from the US, South Korea and the UK has developed a new wildfire and drought prediction model for southwestern North America. Extending far beyond the current seasonal forecast, this study published in the journal Scientific Reports could benefit the economies with a variety of applications in agriculture, water management and forestry.

6. August 2017/by GFMCadmin