Pardee-bought fire truck goes to North Park
12Pardee-bought fire truck goes to North Park
18 December 2008
published by www.delmartimes.net
USA — Station 47 equipment ‘will return’
If the engine bay at Pacific Highlands Ranch Fire Station 47 looks a little roomier since its February opening, there’s a reason why.
While Pardee Homes built the $10 million station and equipped it with a fire engine ladder truck and an ambulance, the truck has since been taken away and given to Station 14 in North Park.
The reason is strictly warranty related, according to Maurice Luque, spokesman for San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.
“The need was to ensure that if there was any warranty work that needed to be done on the truck that it be used to find out,” Luque said. “It wasn’t being used at 47 so we assigned it to a busy station so if there are any deficiencies the department will find out.”
The only way to find out about mechanical or electronic deficiencies with the vehicle is through use, Luque said. He said the city would rather find out about any problems while the truck is still under warranty rather than have to fix it at the city and taxpayers’ expense later.
Luque said there is no set point in time for the truck to return but assured “it will return.”
Pardee Homes declined to comment for this article.
Short-staffed
While Station 47 Captain Jeff George could not comment on the truck being taken away, he was willing to talk about how far San Diego is behind some other cities in the country when it comes to fire protection.
George pointed to an Independent Budget Analysis Report issued in May by the Ad Hoc Fire Prevention and Recovery Committee. The report compared San Diego to ten other large fire departments such as Houston, Indianapolis and San Francisco. When compared to the other cities, San Diego had the fewest number of firefighters per 1,000 residents. San Diego has 2.68 firefighters per square mile of the city, compared to the average 8.80 per square mile.
“In this neck of the woods our biggest concern is wildfire danger,” George said. “Especially all of the canyon brush that has built up over the years.”
Having an additional crew at the station would be a big plus in covering the wildfire risk – currently there are three crews of four firefighters that service the station. The 10,500 square foot station has 11 individual rooms to sleep the station’s capacity at full strength as well as a chief’s suite that is currently empty.
In addition to staffing needs, the report addressed the needs for additional facilities, equipment and an improved brush management program.
In November, Proposition A was placed on the ballot to try to get some of San Diego’s fire service needs met. Prop A was a fire protection parcel tax to help provide for the establishment of a Regional Fire Protection Agency and wildfire prevention efforts like specialized equipment, communication systems and brush clearing.
The proposition failed on Election Day – it needed two-thirds of the vote and fell short.
Questions linger in bushfire aftermath
12Questions linger in bushfire aftermath
28 December 2008
published by www.thewest.com.au
Australia — The families of three truck drivers killed when a ferocious fire ripped through Boorabbin National Park last December have struggled through their first Christmas without the men and with few answers about the tragedy.
A year after good mates and neighbours Lewis Bedford, 60, and Robert Taylor, 46, both of Two Rocks, and Trevor Murley, 53, of Hovea, died in their trucks when they were trapped in the fast-moving inferno 100km west of Coolgardie, no inquest has been held.
The men were part of an unescorted convey of 15 vehicles allowed through a Department of Environment and Conservation roadblock at Coolgardie on December 30, despite warnings the 160km-stretch of Great Eastern Highway between the Goldfields town and Southern Cross was unsafe and expected strong wind gusts could result in unpredictable fire behaviour.
The police arson squad investigating the circumstances of the mens deaths and why the DEC, the lead agency handling the bushfire, reopened the highway handed its report to the coroner in September.
But hopes of a public inquiry before the next bushfire season were dashed with the courts schedule full until early 2009, although it is understood emergency services agencies have already finalised new guidelines for bushfire road closures in a bid to prevent similar tragedies.
Mr Taylors brother Andrew said his family would like an explanation about the disaster and anyone at fault should be held liable. But nothing could bring his brother or the other men back.
He (Robert) left on his truck run on Christmas Eve and that was the last time I spoke to him, he said. On Christmas Day I remembered thinking about him being on the road and wondering where he would eat Christmas dinner. Now you relive last year but knowing different circumstances. Im just trying to keep things together.
Estelle Dragun, Lewis Bedfords sister, said she believed the authorities had already learnt a great deal about the horrific tragedy.
I think thats the important thing, that we learn and we dont make the same mistakes again, she said. Its such harsh country out there. She wished the families of the other men well and said her family was trying to remember her brother the best way they could.
Trevor Murleys brother Ross said his family would privately commemorate his brothers death.
Friends of the three truck drivers have created a heartfelt tribute at the site where they died, planting trees in a bid to bring life to the blackened area and leaving mementos of flowers and trucking posters.
But the white crosses they erected provide a stark memorial on the desolate stretch of Great Eastern Highway. A year after the mens deaths, the shrine of waist-high crosses bearing their names and photographs stands out from the still-blackened landscape.
Wonder what that is? Shrink-wrapped helicopters arrive in Australia in time for festive bushfire-fighting season
12Wonder what that is? Shrink-wrapped helicopters arrive in Australia in time for festive bushfire-fighting season
10 December 2008
published by www.dailymail.co.uk
Australia — This shrink-wrapped helicopter is not a Christmas gift for the man who has everything its a valuable resource in fighting fires.
The Sky Crane helicopter is specially designed to lift heavy objects including gallons of water to help put out fires.
Special delivery: One of three Sky Crane helicopters arrives in White Bay this morning
Covered in protective plastic wrap, the chopper was one of three delivered to White Bay, in Sydney, Australia, this morning.
It was shipped in as part of the regions preparation for the New South Wales bush fire season, which runs from October to March each year.
The Sky Crane has a tank which can hold thousands of litres of water and flame retardant, which can be quickly dropped directly onto blazes.
In action: A Sky Crane like the one shrink-wrapped above
Forest fire report: Big losses rarer than feared
12Forest fire report: Big losses rarer than feared
5 December 2008
published by www.oregonlive.com
USA — A U.S. Forest Service report indicates that Oregon is losing less forest to major fires than had been feared.
A five-year inventory of federal, state and private forests in Oregon from the U.S. Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station shows the amount of forest that burned in the kinds of intense fires that move fast and cause a lot of damage was much smaller than previous analyses had predicted.
Barring a prolonged drought, less than half the forested lands in Oregon are predicted to develop crown fires, and an even smaller fraction, 5 to 15 percent, can be expected to develop active crown fires, a report on the inventory said.
]]>That contradicts studies published in 1999 and 2002, which found that a century of trying to put out every forest fire had left much of the forest with an excessive buildup of fuels that would generate major fires, the report said.
An average of 155,000 acres of forest burned annually between 1995 and 2004, which amounts to 0.51 percent of the 30 million acres of total forest land in Oregon. The high in the period was 2002, a drought year, when 1.90 percent of Oregon’s forest burned, about 570,000 acres.
“Increased media attention to wildfires and a perception among land managers of the need for managing wildland fuels more actively may be generating the impression that the area burned is increasing,” the report said.
In general, the state of Oregon forests is good, said Joseph Donnegan, a Forest Service ecologist who was lead editor of the report. Insect infestations and disease are low, the forests are producing a variety of goods such as lumber and services such as clean water, wildlife habitat and outdoor recreation.
Climate, particularly a prolonged drought, is a much bigger factor in determining the prospects for a bad wildfire year than how much logging has been done, Donnegan said.
Forest ecologists Norman K. Johnson of Oregon State University and Jerry Franklin of the University of Washington agreed.
“On the westside (of the Cascades) … the fire danger is highly overrated (in an historical context),” Franklin wrote in an e-mail.
The work needed to get forests in shape amounts primarily to clearing brush and small trees that serve as ladder fuels, carrying flames from the ground up into the forest canopy, rather than thinning mature trees, Donnegan said.
The problem is that there is little commercial value in the materials produced from such work, except as fuel for biomass generators, which are in short supply in Oregon.
However, the inventory estimated that thinning forests in the Cascades from Hood River to Redding, Calif., and the Klamath and Siskiyou mountains from Roseburg to Redding, Calif., could produce $6 billion to $9 billion dollars worth of fuel for power generation, enough to produce 496 to 1,009 megawatts of electricity over 10 years.
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Meanwhile, what conservation groups have been telling the Forest Service for years old growth forests are less prone to fire than younger forests was borne out in an analysis of the Biscuit Fire, which burned at varying intensities across 500,000 acres primarily on the Siskiyou National Forest in southwestern Oregon.
The inventory found that more than three-quarters of the land covered in big old trees, both conifers and hardwoods, burned at low intensities, which clean up brush and ladder fuels without killing the large trees.
The places that were hit by hot, intense fire tended to be sites that could not grow big trees, and were covered with brush and smaller trees.
The inventory also found that the national forests are home to almost all the old growth forest left in Oregon, and that old growth forests serve as a carbon sink, storing more carbon pulled from the air by photosynthesis than released through decomposition.
Donnegan said it would be up to society to decide whether old growth forests are more valuable as a tool in combatting global warming than as lumber.
Turkeys fire fighters set up Med base station
12Turkeys fire fighters set up Med base station
24 December 2008
published by www.hurriyet.com.tr
Turkey — Years of constant fights against forest fires may have given Turkey a notorious reputation, but the country is about to use it for a positive thing. Turkey has been selected as the main base for Mediterranean fire fighting
Antalya will become home to a fire station that will fight forest fires throughout Mediterranean countries.
The new station will be established to ensure cooperation among Mediterranean countries in fighting forest fires, said Osman Kahveci, Forest General Manager.
“We are planning to establish a large fire station in Antalya,” said Kahveci. “We have already created a budget for it.”
Turkey has a notoriously big experience on forest fires, especially during the summertime, so that it is already enough know-how to train other countries firefighting teams.
Negotiations kick off
“The station will be a center for fire fighting teams to undergo training and will be a base to fight fire in Mediterranean countries,” Kahveci said.
Turkish fire fighters will collaborate with firemen from other Mediterranean countries in case of an emergency.
Negotiations have been ongoing with France and firefighting teams will examine Frances fire station base in detail, the Forest General Manager added. Mediterranean countries will train each other after forming the new Antalya base.
The Southern city of Turkey will also host the first symposium of the fighting forest fires platform of Mediterranean countries. The inaugural symposium will be held in Antalya from Jan. 7 to 10.
Organized by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, the symposium will also house an art gallery with the participation of firms that produce firefighting equipment.
The reasons behind forest fires and fire fighting technologies will be two of the leading subjects to be covered at the symposium, while global and Turkish statistics about fire will be exhibited as well. The countries will also share their knowledge on fire fighting techniques, protection from fire, fire monitoring systems, fire fighter training, fire extinguishing techniques and water supply in fire intervention.
Foresting works in the West
Apart from fire fighting works, Turkey is now trying to give another life to the areas, which were seriously damaged from recent forest fires.
A brand new foresting work has started in Marmaris, the popular holiday resort in the city of Muğla.
The foresting campaign that has been launched in Aksaz, Marmaris aims to eradicate the damage caused by last summer’s forest fires.
Muğla Regional Forest Administrator İbrahim Aydın said they would re-plant the forest in all areas ruined by the fires in the Western city of Turkey.
Talking at the ceremony held to launch the reforestation of the 45 hectares of burned land in Aksaz, Aydın said they already planted pine seed on the area.
The Regional Forest Administrator pointed out that forest fires could turn into even bigger disaster in these days when the world is seriously facing the problem of global warming.
“We have launched a foresting campaign in the areas burned down by forest fires in 2008 along the border of the city,” Aydın explained. “We are aiming at foresting the entire burned area.”
Talking at the ceremony, Aksaz Marine Bass Commander Rear Admiral Yalçın Kavukçuoğlu agreed with Aydın that the forests are massively important for the region.
“Muğlas 68 percent of territory is covered by forest,” Kavukçuoğlu said, adding that every summer the city is hit more and more from forest fires, more than any other area in the country.
“The city is the most fragile region of the country due to forest fires,” he added. “We have to be more careful and cautious.”
Spending to fight California wildfires tops $1 billion
12Spending to fight California wildfires tops $1 billion
31 December 2008
published by www.latimes.com
USA — About 1.4 million acres burned in 2008 in one of the worst fire seasons in the state’s history. But no meaningful reforms are enacted at the state or federal level.
Wildfire spending in California continued its upward climb this year, driven by one of the worst fire seasons in the state’s history.
Almost a quarter of all the wild land that burned across the country in 2008 was in California — roughly 1.4 million acres. The fires, fought at a huge cost to taxpayers, failed to translate into any meaningful reforms at the state or federal level despite efforts in Sacramento and Washington.
Lawmakers introduced a number of measures dealing with land use, fire prevention and protection. But the proposals stalled, or in the case of one major state bill, were vetoed.
In fiscal 2008, half of the $1.4 billion that the U.S. Forest Service spent nationally on wildfire suppression was spent in California alone. State fire expenditures topped $1 billion.
“I think we’ve seen unprecedented fires,” said Ruben Grijalva, director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Much of the California acreage burned in early summer, when an unusually fierce dry-lightning storm sparked more than 2,000 wildfires from Monterey County to the Oregon border. The biggest blaze scorched the mountainous Big Sur coast, forcing evacuations and closing California 1.
The 30,000-acre Freeway Complex fire in the vicinity of the 57 and 91 freeways destroyed nearly 200 residences in Orange and Riverside counties in November. It was among numerous California wildfires that burned roughly 1.4 million acres in 2008. State fire expenditures topped $1 billion.
In the fall, the action shifted to Southern California, where the Marek, Sesnon and Sayre fires blew across the brushy hills of Los Angeles County, reducing hundreds of mobile homes to smoldering heaps. In Orange and Riverside counties, the 30,000-acre Freeway Complex blaze destroyed nearly 200 residences. And the Tea fire chewed its way through Montecito neighborhoods.
All told, an area nearly three times the size of Orange County burned throughout the state. More than 2,300 structures were destroyed.
Statistics like that are driving efforts to adopt preventive measures.
“The solution is not just more engines, more airplanes,” said Grijalva, who previously served as state fire marshal and Palo Alto’s fire chief.
But the past year underscores how much easier it is to open the funding spigot than to pursue more fundamental reforms to rein in firefighting costs or shift more of the financial burden to those who live in high fire-hazard zones.
Big Burn series: Wildfires, costs grow
State Sen. Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego) sponsored several measures that went nowhere. One would have raised an estimated $43 million a year for fuel-reduction projects and state inspections by imposing a $50 fee on residences in areas protected by the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
A bill written by Assemblyman Dave Jones (D-Sacramento) would have required that new subdivisions in high fire-risk areas have two access roads to ensure that residents could get out and fire engines could get in during an emergency. Developers also would have had to show that they had adequate water pressure and fire protection.
The proposal, supported by firefighter associations, was listed as a “job killer” by the state Chamber of Commerce, which argued that it could virtually shut down suburban development in certain parts of the state. The bill was passed by the Legislature but vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“There is an absolute disconnect between requiring state taxpayers to take on the ever increasing burden of fighting fires when it’s the decisions at local levels to put more homes and people in harm’s way,” Jones said, disputing that the measure amounted to a building moratorium. He said he plans to work with Kehoe to reintroduce similar legislation in the coming year.
U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) helped push through an appropriations bill that provided $910 million in emergency funds for federal firefighting and fuel-reduction efforts. But her proposal to give incentives to communities around the country to adopt a model fire-safe ordinance dealing with building codes and defensible space fizzled.
Another bill, sponsored by Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) — chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee — would have created a new federal account to pay for major wildfires, shifting the cost from the U.S. Forest Service budget. It too failed.
Local resistance to state fees and mandates played a major role in blocking the Kehoe and Jones bills. But reform proponents are not giving up.
“I’m not pushing for a state mandate,” Grijalva said. “But I’m pushing for a process that would allow a very public review of those decisions being made that also take into consideration what the local [firefighting] response capability is, what the local prevention and enforcement capabilities are, what the local building standards are.”
Grijalva said fire officials also are considering experimenting with a version of Australia’s stay-and-defend program: Rather than evacuating, homeowners are trained to protect their residences from the shower of embers that are typically more of a threat during a wildfire than encroaching flames.
“You’ll start seeing pilot programs of what they do in Australia, with some modifications in California — huge education programs,” Grijalva said.
The Department of Forestry and Fire Protection is training insurance industry inspectors on state requirements to clear house perimeters of flammable material. And fire officials are mulling whether some aspects of the state’s recently enacted building standards for high fire-hazard zones should come into play when homeowners remodel. For example, if someone replaces a deck, they might have to use fire-resistant building materials.
Although significantly fewer acres burned across the U.S. this year than last year, the Forest Service spent slightly more nationally on fire suppression in 2008 than the previous year.
“Not all acres are equal,” said Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who oversees the Forest Service.
He pointed out that it is costlier to fight fires in California than in many other states. And the federal fiscal year begins in October, so it included the fall 2007 firestorm in Southern California as well as last summer’s lightning blitz.
Rey said he believed the agency had succeeded in slowing the rise in firefighting costs, which have ballooned with a jump in burn acreage over the last decade.
Still, he cautioned, “that rate is going to continue to increase as a consequence of fire and fuels conditions and drought,” and the spread of development on the wild land fringe.
The Forest Service is starting to embrace a strategy that it hopes will help contain costs. Rather than aggressively attacking every front of a fire, it allows managers to pull back in remote areas while focusing on more critical points. But that approach is unlikely to see much use in the developed areas of California.
Although federal spending on forest fuel reduction has increased significantly in recent years, it continues to lag far behind firefighting costs, both in California and nationally.
“I don’t think you can take money from suppression to do fuels treatment,” Rey said. “Suppression money is what saves lives and homes, so that’s not going to be a very popular posture.”
Catastrophe Losses Make 2008 One of Costliest Years On Record, According to Guy Carpenter Briefing
12Catastrophe Losses Make 2008 One of Costliest Years On Record, According to Guy Carpenter Briefing
30 December 2008
published by www.businesswire.com
USA — Guy Carpenter & Company, LLC, the leading global risk and reinsurance specialist, today published 2008 Catastrophe Update, a briefing about the catastrophe reinsurance marketplace in 2008. The briefing, available onwww.GCCapitalIdeas.com, Guy Carpenters new intellectual capital website, states that the high frequency and severity of Atlantic hurricanes in 2008, coupled with other weather-related and man-made losses, placed the year among the costliest on record for insured catastrophe losses.
The record-setting Atlantic hurricane season especially Ike and Gustav is the big story and the primary driver of insured losses in 2008, said Chris Klein, Global Head of Business Intelligence, Guy Carpenter. At the same time, one should not overlook the role that other events, such as the China earthquake, California wildfires, and man-made catastrophes, played in making this an especially active year.
The ten-year moving average of insured catastrophe losses costs continued to rise in 2008, increasing by 7 percent over 2007 from $35.5 billion to $38 billion. Overall, the 2008 hurricane season produced a record number of consecutive storms striking the United States, ranking as one of the most active seasons in the 64 years since comprehensive records began. Other notable storms of 2008 included Hurricane Dolly in Texas, Tropical Storm Fay in Florida, and Tropical Storm Hanna in the Carolinas.
Other noteworthy weather-related events in 2008 included Windstorm Emma causing insured losses of $1.3 billion which affected northern and eastern regions of Europe, with Germany the hardest hit. The years largest and most costly earthquake hit the Chinese province of Sichuan in May, killing more than 85,000 people. Though only a fraction of the loss is insured, it is likely to represent one of the highest insured losses in Chinas history.
In the United States, in addition to hurricane activity, flooding and wildfires triggered significant losses in 2008. May and June storms in the Midwest led to severe flooding, inundating up to 40,000 homes and businesses. Insurance Services Offices (ISO) Property Claim Services® (PCS) unit estimates insured losses from the floods at $725 million. Wildfires in Southern California, meanwhile, destroyed around 980 homes, triggering an EQECAT-estimated total property loss of up to $500 million.
The year 2008 was also an unusually active year for man-made catastrophe losses. Losses in the mining, energy, and steel industries were particularly large in 2008. Claims were exacerbated by the impact of record high commodity prices on business interruption cover.
Guy Carpenters new intellectual capital website,www.GCCapitalIdeas.com, leverages blog technology, including Real Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds, as well as searchable category tags, to deliver Guy Carpenters latest research as soon as it is available. In addition, articles can be delivered directly to BlackBerry® devices and other personal digital assistants (PDAs).
Hot landslides may have set off mystery wildfires
12Hot landslides may have set off mystery wildfires
10 December 2008
published by www.newscientist.com
USA — Can a landslide spontaneously combust? It can if it contains the right kind of rocks.
In August 2004, fire crews attended a wildfire near Santa Barbara, California. After hosing down the burning grass, they traced the fire to a recent landslide, but had no idea how it started.
A few weeks later, Robert Mariner, from the US Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California, and his colleagues visited the site and found that the temperature of the rocks in the landslide was 307 ° C – hot enough to start a fire. The analysis of gas from boreholes ruled out geological ignition sources such as volcanic activity or flammable natural gas, so it appeared that a chemical reaction in the rocks caused the ignition.
The landslide exposed a mineral called pyrite to the air, causing an oxidation reaction that heated a nearby patch of low-grade coal to more than 300 ° C (Geology,DOI: 10.1130/G25285A.1).
Ian West at the University of Southampton, UK, thinks that landslide fires may be more common than we realise: “There have been a few along the UK’s Dorset coast in the last few hundred years, and there are records of a huge fire in the Dead Sea area, dating from King Solomon’s time, which may have started this way.”
FireLocator.net Provides California Residents with Tool that Tracks Locations of Fast-Moving Wildfires
12FireLocator.net Provides California Residents with Tool that Tracks Locations of Fast-Moving Wildfires
2 December 2008
published by www.marketwatch.com
USA –Pitney Bowes MapInfo, the leading global provider of location intelligence solutions, today announced FireLocator, a Web site that disseminates data and information on wildfires to government agencies, residents and media outlets.
Currently released in beta, FireLocator provides dynamic, up-to-the-minute information on the situation of current wildfires as well as information on previous instances. Fire perimeters, detailed fire information, community generated imagery, fire-related news and multimedia content are all featured on this site. Built using Pitney Bowes MapInfo’s Envinsa(R) location intelligence platform, FireLocator enables users to enter a location such as a street address, neighborhood or even area of interest, and visually see that location in relation to a wildfire. With wildfire data from the company’s Insurance Risk Data Suite(TM), FireLocator creates a thematic map that rates areas of California as low, medium or high for potential wildfire risk. “FireLocator provides government agencies and individuals with the timely location intelligence they need to help safeguard people, property and resources,” said Arthur Berrill, vice president of Advanced Concepts and Technology, Pitney Bowes MapInfo. “By integrating up-to-the-minute data from multiple sources such as GeoMac Multi Agency Coordination and NASA Modis Data, FireLocator provides a comprehensive view of where wildfires are happening now and where they may spread. Armed with this information, agencies and news outlets can help residents prepare for fire threats and accurately monitor the situations in their community.”
“Fire season is moving into its peak months, and the public depends on us to receive the latest intelligence on where wildfires strike in our area,” said Shawna Federoff, research manager Inland Newspaper Division. “Our collaboration with Pitney Bowes MapInfo provides us with an intuitive rich Internet application that allows us to disseminate valuable information during natural disasters.” The FireLocator user interface utilizes Microsoft Silverlight(R) technology and Microsoft Virtual Earth(R) to deliver a high level of interactivity, integration and ease of use. It enables users to make rapid, well informed decisions about wildfire threats.
“Microsoft is uniquely positioned to enhance the online user experience with interactive services and powerful visualization tools that help bring location-based data to life,” said Eddie Amos, general manager for Worldwide Partner Evangelism at Microsoft. “By working closely with FireLocator, we are providing powerful and informative online experiences to our mutual customers.”
To learn more about FireLocator please visitwww.firelocator.net.
(Screen-short view of the FireLocator website)
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