24 May 2019

Published by https://www.timesofisrael.com

ISRAEL – Wildfires raged across Israel on Friday for the second day in a row, as officials warned the public to stay away from parks and forests and an initial investigation indicated an electrical short sparked some of the blazes on Thursday.

Gripped by unseasonably scorching weather, a spate of fires across the country on Thursday devastated towns and forests, forcing thousands out of their homes.

The fires picked up again on Friday afternoon, when residents of Neguhot in the South Hebron Hills were evacuated by authorities after a wildfire threatened the settlement. The Israel Fire and Rescue Services later announced firefighters were able to contain the blaze and residents were allowed to return to their homes.

Fifteen people were being treated for smoke inhalation in Neguhot, according to the Israel Fire and Rescue Services, one of whom was hospitalized.

Firefighters successfully extinguished a second fire raging near the West Bank settlement of Peduel, one of whose neighborhoods was evacuated. The Fire and Rescue Services said four firefighting planes worked to put out the fire.

Several firefighting teams, including four planes, were working to contain a large blaze near Moshav Shahar, near Ashkelon. Other teams were on the ground in the Jordan Valley and central Israel’s Modi’in Illit.

Four Palestinian firefighting teams were assisting Israeli responders, the Fire and Rescue Services said.

In Moshav Beit Ezra, near the southern city of Ashdod, some residents were evacuated as a wheat field adjacent to the community went up in flames. Firefighters were able to get control of the fire, which was put out with the help of a helicopter sent by Egypt.

A firefighter was lightly injured while working to extinguish the blaze by a gas tank that exploded, the Ynet news site reported. He suffered second degree burns and was taken to the hospital for further treatment.

Further south, a number of families in Moshav Yakhini were evacuated from their homes due to a fire that broke out nearby. Responders from Fire and Rescue Services were working to prevent the fire from approaching the community.

Authorities suspected that an incendiary balloon from Gaza started the blaze.

In the Tel Aviv suburb of Herzliya, residents of three apartment buildings were ordered to leave their homes due to a nearby brushfire.

The fire service on Friday said some of the blazes in southern Israel, and those that ravaged homes in Kibbutz Harel on Thursday, were apparently started as a result of the shorting of Israel Electric Company cables, according to a preliminary investigation.

Investigators were still working to pinpoint the source of a fire that ripped through the central town of Mevo Modi’im, destroying much of the community. Firefighters picked through the charred shells of homes and cars on Friday in the village founded by musician Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach.

The outbreak came as Jewish Israelis marked the Lag B’Omer holiday on Thursday — which is usually celebrated with bonfires, though most were restricted this year due to the weather warnings — fueling speculation that bonfires gone awry were the source of the crisis.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday applauded the firefighting and rescue services for their “excellent” handling of the fires, while warning “the challenge is still ahead of us.”

“I would like to thank the firefighters and the pilots who are doing very hard work. I ask the citizens of Israel to obey the instructions to refrain from traveling. Our mission is to save lives,” Netanyahu said.

Authorities were reportedly mulling declaring a national emergency Friday over fire fears. Temperatures were expected to reach a sweltering 110ºF (43ºC) in some areas between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The Dead Sea and Jordan Valley are expected to see even higher temperatures, including an egg-frying 118ºF (48ºC) at the lowest place on earth.

With air conditioners working overtime, the Israel Electric Corporation said electricity use Friday afternoon set an all-time record for the month of May and for a Friday, with demand peaking at 12,036 megawatts.

The IEC noted electricity use usually drops on Fridays, a day off from work for many Israelis. Friday evenings also mark the start of Shabbat, when observant Jews refrain from working or turning on electric appliances.

International help to stem the fires, meanwhile, was on its way.

Cyprus ground firefighting units arrived in Israel on Friday morning, and the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that a delegation from Cyprus, including aircraft, arrived at the Tel Nof military base Friday evening. Air support from Greece, Croatia and Italy was expected in Israel later in the day. The international help came after Netanyahu put out an urgent plea for aid in battling the blazes.

Netanyahu on Friday also thanked Egypt for sending two helicopters to back Israel’s firefighting efforts, and said the Palestinian Authority and Russia were among those that offered assistance.

The prime minister also said he was considering expanding Israel’s squadron of firefighting planes.

Netanyahu and Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan were briefed on the damage by firefighting and rescue officials.

Firefighters worked all day Thursday to gain control over a series of wildfires that broke out in the Ben Shemen forest outside the central city of Modi’in, and in other communities in wooded areas west of Jerusalem. The head of Fire and Rescue Services called up all firefighters in the central region in view of the large number of blazes in the area.

Dozens of homes were reportedly burned and some 3,500 people were forced from their homes by the fires.

The village of Mevo Modi’im, inside the Ben Shemen forest east of the Tel Aviv area, saw some of the worst damage.

Pictures and videos showed a massive wall of flame sweeping through the community and many of the small town’s homes destroyed by fire. All but 10 of the village’s homes were badly damaged by the fire, according to the Ynet news site.

Much of the surrounding woodland was also ravaged, with a number of other small towns in the area being evacuated, and Route 443, a major highway running from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, closed for much of Thursday and into Friday.

Over 500 acres of woodland have burned, said Nitai Zecharya, an Israeli official from the Jewish National Fund, known for planting forests in the country.

Zecharya said that while firefighters had brought most of the blaze under control, officials remained “very stressed” about strong winds fanning flames and “spreading fires to other fronts.”

Wooded areas outside the city of Beit Shemesh also saw an outbreak of fires, with at least six homes in Kibbutz Harel destroyed.

“Already as of yesterday, it was impossible to enter. I left the children and tried to reach our house to save at least one of our dogs,” a resident of Kibbutz Harel told the Walla news site.

“They would not let me in, but someone else broke into our house and let the pets out. In the afternoon I went into the house and saw that I no longer had anything, just what I was wearing. There was nothing left. The cats were gone, and one dog too. We’re currently trying to fetch another dog that apparently has been roaming around. We told the children that the home is gone along with their toys and clothes.”

Officials fear Friday may see Palestinian attempts to start fires in the Gaza border region, through the use of airborne incendiary devices.

“The balloon terror may get worse tomorrow depending on the wind direction, after a few of their attempts failed today,” a fire official in the region told Army Radio.

In the Red Sea resort city of Eilat, a fire damaged an electric pole, cutting electricity to much of the city overnight and leaving sweating residents and tourists without air conditioning, according to the Ynet news site. Temperatures in the area on Friday are expected to rocket to 107ºF (42ºC).

The mercury is expected to fall Saturday to more seasonable temperatures, though still hotter than average.

In 2016, wildfires damaged or destroyed around 700 homes in Israel and the West Bank, and sent more than 13,000 hectares (32,000 acres) of woodland up in smoke.

23 May 2019

Published by https://www.cbs7.com

USA – BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK, Tx. (KOSA) — Historic buildings at the Castolon Visitor Center at Big Bend National Park caught on fire on Wednesday night after embers spread from a nearby wildland fire.

According to the Big Bend National Park’s Facebook page, the embers were dropped on the historic barracks, officers quarters and restroom facilities. These buildings, which house the Castolon Visitor Center and La Harmonia store, were extensively damaged, park officials say.

As of Thursday fire crews are still working to contain the wildland fire and that the situation is ongoing.

Old Maverick Road, Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive, and River Road West from Buenos Aires to Castolon have been closed to keep visitors safe.

22 May 2019

Published by https://www.firerescue1.com/

USA – The relationship between President Trump and California has long been fraught, but in the aftermath of the state’s deadliest wildfire season, the acrimony is burning hotter than ever.

In November, as crews battled the Camp and Woolsey fires, Trump blamed the state for “gross mismanagement of the forests” and delivered this ultimatum: “Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!”

Then, while visiting the devastated town of Paradise later that month, Trump suggested California could eliminate the threat of wildfire by “raking.”

Now, the Trump administration has taken matters a step further.

As California prepares for what some officials fear will be another devastating fire season, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Forest Service are withholding reimbursements that state fire agencies say are owed for battling wildfires on federal lands last year.

Instead of fulfilling California’s full $72-million reimbursement request, the Forest Service conducted an audit of the California Fire Assistance Agreement and now accuses the state of overbilling.

The Forest Service has demanded that the state provide proof of its “actual expenses.”

With the start of the traditional fire season just weeks away, California officials worry that the audit is a precursor to the Trump administration cutting back on fire assistance.

In a May 14 letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen, Sen. Dianne Feinstein implored them to delay any actions that would reduce reimbursement rates.

“As you know, around 60% of forested land in California is owned by the federal government,” Feinstein wrote. “Wildfires don’t stop at jurisdictional boundaries, so a unified federal-state approach is the only way to properly protect lives and property.”

The dispute marks a sudden change in a decades-long partnership between federal and local authorities.

Since 1961, the Forest Service has reimbursed the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, or Cal OES, for the costs of local, state and volunteer firefighters who help battle blazes on federal lands.

Under the current assistance agreement, which runs from 2015 to 2020, the state calculates those costs by averaging the salaries, benefits and other indirect expenses tied to the work of firefighters, according to Cal OES Fire Chief Brian Marshall.

For the 2018 fire season, which killed at least 100 people, Cal OES calculated total reimbursements of $72 million. That estimate included the work of some of the 5,600 firefighters who battled the Camp fire as it spread into Plumas National Forest in November, and 3,400 firefighters who battled the Carr fire in Shasta-Trinity National Forest in July.

The Forest Service said in a statement that it decided to audit the agreement after receiving a letter from Cal OES Director Mark Ghilarducci. That letter, which was sent in July 2017, chastised the agency for not reimbursing the state in a timely manner.

“The USFS has blatantly ignored its financial responsibility to the men and women of California who have risked their lives fighting fires to protect federal land,” Ghilarducci wrote.

As a result of the audit, the federal government is now withholding more than $9 million of the original $72 million reimbursement request. Some of that money, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, is reportedly owed to the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

“The audit found that the current [California Fire Assistance Agreement] does not result in reimbursement of actual expenses to local fire departments,” the Forest Service said in a statement provided to The Times.

“Our intentions are to fully reimburse the State of California for all of their actual expenses. The only payments that we have not made are those that do not have documentation that substantiate actual expenses,” the Forest Service said.

Cal OES argues that the federal government is changing the terms of its agreement unfairly.

Fire Chief Marshall said it has been a long-accepted practice for the state to submit average personnel costs, and that tabulating the actual salary, overtime, travel costs and other expenses for thousands of individual firefighters on every federal incident would be too onerous and time-consuming.

“The new requirements the USFS seeks to impose would be cumbersome and would severely impact California’s ability to respond to fires,” Marshall wrote in a letter to the agency.

He also said the federal government is withholding the audit itself, and that he and other officials were only briefed on portions of it.

“It wasn’t a typical audit that you see from the government. It was a PowerPoint; it wasn’t an audit. They said ‘overcharging.’ But they also said ‘undercharging,’” Marshall said. “They won’t tell us if they’re going to be able to pay our volunteers or not.”

While large fire departments like L.A. County’s may be able to absorb the financial hit, those with only a few employees, or those that run exclusively on volunteers, can’t, Marshall said.

“If a fire department is unable to send resources and personnel to a fire because they don’t know if they’re going to get paid, then obviously the fires are going to get bigger, and that’s unacceptable.”

California has long served as a model for large-scale disaster response, although its history of preparation has left something to be desired.

After the Oakland Hills fire in 1991, California set up a framework for responding, communicating and allocating resources across multiple jurisdictions and levels of government during an unfolding disaster. That became the outline for a national model following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Similarly, California’s current approach to mutual aid among fire agencies is “viewed and cited as the nation’s most effective model,” Marshall wrote to the Forest Service on April 24. “To date, the USFS provided no legal citation for these requirements, nor any basis for the need to deviate from past interpretation and implementation of the CFAA.”

For its part, the Forest Service said it’s only looking out for the American taxpayer.

“We are working diligently with the State of California to obtain the information needed to expedite full reimbursement of the State’s incurred expenses,” the agency’s statement said.

———

©2019 the Los Angeles Times

21 May 2019

Published by https://phys.org/

USA – The destructive force of wildfires in the U.S. is well documented. Every year, on both the east and west coasts of the country, and due to both environmental and man-made factors, fires rage, and homes and habitats are destroyed. But beyond the obvious dangers, these fires cause other, more invisible damages. Certain nanoscale particles in the atmosphere known as organic aerosols—particles released when organic materials like trees and other plant matter are burned—have been linked to an increased risk of heart disease, and even death.

These particles don’t just pose a threat to the region where the fire burns. Until now, most models of atmospheric particle movement have made certain assumptions about how these organic aerosols will affect human health based on how they react with the atmosphere. But in their recent paper published in Atmospheric Environment, authors Spyros Pandis, professor of chemical engineering; Allen Robinson, head and professor of mechanical engineering; and Laura Posner, chemical engineering Ph.D. alumna, are challenging those assumptions, and revealing just how dangerous organic aerosol emissions can be.

“Biomass burning is a major global source of organic aerosols,” the authors write in the paper. “Biomass burning organic aerosol can contribute significantly to organic aerosol concentrations both locally and far downwind of fires.”

Traditionally, organic aerosols are divided into two categories, based on how they enter the atmosphere: primary organic aerosol (POA), and secondary organic aerosol (SOA). POA is directly emitted into the atmosphere as particles, while SOA is formed when some of the products of volatile organic compound oxidation condense in the atmosphere. Current chemical transport models, which track the movement of particles in the air, focus on POA emissions from fires, but neglect those from SOA.

Because of this assumption, these chemical transport models only account for the damages caused by POA, which are mostly in the burn’s immediate vicinity—the local area around the fire. This new research suggests, however, that only taking POA into account is only telling half the story—and that the effects of SOA can pose a threat to the health of people much further from the fire’s source.

The team used a three-dimensional transport model to understand how much these emissions from wildfires contributed to the total organic aerosol concentrations in the continental U.S. for three representative months during spring, summer, and fall. The model showed that while POA remained the most severe contributor to organic aerosol concentrations near the burned area, incorporating SOA into those measurements made the transport model much more accurate when compared to the observed levels of organic aerosol than other predictive models—at least for the spring and summer. In the fall, on the other hand, the model had a tendency to over predict the levels of organic aerosol, suggesting a correlation between the temperature and the proliferation of these emissions.

“Atmospheric chemistry acts as a booster,” says Pandis, “producing additional particulate matter as the plume moves away from the fire one or two days later. The effects, of course, get smaller as one gets away from the fire, but it can remain significant up to six hundred miles away—even if it’s no longer visible as thick smoke. This enhancement is stronger during warm sunny days.”

The authors hope that this research will help expand the public’s understanding of the severity of these wildfires and the importance of limiting them in the future, just as we try to limit other sources of harmful emissions.

“The evidence suggests that these emissions are just as bad for our health as that of other combustion sources, such as vehicle and industrial emissions,” says Pandis. “The emissions from wildfires contain thousands of complex organic compounds, some of them carcinogenic.”

More information: Laura N. Posner et al. Simulation of fresh and chemically-aged biomass burning organic aerosol, Atmospheric Environment (2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2018.09.055

21 May 2019

Published by https://wildfiretoday.com/

USA – In December, 2017 the Thomas Fire burned over 281,000 acres and 1,000 homes in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties in Southern California. But in Montecito, with a wildland-urban interface stretching for five miles along the Los Padres National Forest boundary, only seven primary residences were destroyed. Considered a success story, this result is due to many factors, including the fact that homeowners and firefighters had days to prepare for the fire entering the city, which meant that firefighters did not have to make a choice between helping residents to evacuate or protecting homes. This is in stark contrast to last November’s Camp Fire that raced into Paradise, California within a couple of hours after being ignited by a PG&E power line. In that case firefighters did not have the luxury of suppressing the fire as it burned homes; they had to concentrate on helping residents evacuate and saving lives.

But another important factor that helped to reduce the number of homes destroyed in Montecito in 2017 was the pre-fire mitigation work that had been ongoing in the community for two decades.

After the fire the Montecito Fire Protection District sought to document and understand the confluence of social, ecological, and biophysical factors associated with implementing fire adaptation activities and how they affected the outcome of the Thomas Fire in their community.

The findings in this study should be considered by all communities in a fire-prone environment. Cities that resist mitigation efforts such as constructing fuel breaks, enacting FireWise building codes, spacing homes more than 10 to 20 feet apart, planning for evacuations, and being proactive in protecting their residents long before smoke is in the air, are doomed to a very unpleasant and rude awakening one day. It is not IF a fire will impact their community, it is WHEN.

Below are excerpts from the Montecito study, conducted by Crystal A. Kolden and Carol Henson. The entire report is open source.

…Here, we document both the social and the biophysical vulnerability reduction strategies taken by the community of Montecito, California in Santa Barbara County, USA, prior to the 2017 Thomas Fire, and how those strategies translated into outcomes. Montecito is one of the many communities in the United States that has been repeatedly exposed to wildfires over the last several decades, with multiple disastrous events . As such, the Montecito Fire Protection District (MFPD) embarked on an effort to reduce wildfire vulnerability in the community two decades ago. That effort was subsequently tested in the December 2017 Thomas Fire, which consumed over 1000 homes and became the largest wildfire in contemporary California history for several months until it was surpassed in 2018. Most of the homes were consumed at the outset of the Thomas Fire on days when strong downslope winds (i.e., Santa Ana and Sundowner winds) prevailed, and extreme fire behavior including long runs and long-range spotting, occurred, overwhelming fire suppression efforts. By contrast, Montecito experienced relatively little infrastructure damage from the Thomas Fire, despite similar conditions, including extreme fire behavior and the presence of Sundowner winds on the day the fire beset the community (16 December 2018).

Over the 20-year period between 1999 and 2018, the MFPD expended approximately $1.76 million (mill) USD ($2 mill USD adjusted for inflation to 2018) on wildfire vulnerability reduction activities (Figure 2). We include 2018 here as these are fiscal year totals, where the fiscal year ends June 30 of the year listed, so the Fiscal Year 2018 (FY2018) expenditures were primarily expended in autumn 2017, prior to the December ignition of the Thomas Fire (this also contributes to reduced FY2018 expenditures relative to prior years). When adjusted for inflation, it is clear that funding was inter-annually variable, but generally increasing over time (Figure 2).

Most of the activities undertaken by MFPD addressed more than one component of the vulnerability triangle (i.e., exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity).

• Any action that specifically identified geospatial patterns of exposure to wildfire (e.g., defensible space surveys), or was designed to reduce direct exposure to wildfire (e.g., defensible space improvements, roadside fuel reduction) addressed exposure vulnerability.
• Any action that specifically identified populations in the community that are more sensitive to the negative ramifications of wildfire and determined population-specific actions designed to mitigate those ramifications addressed sensitivity vulnerability.
• Any action that increased the ability of the community to respond to wildfire and reduce the negative ramifications developed adaptive capacity.

An action such as hiring a Wildland Fire Specialist, whose primary position is to build relationships with community members and facilitate programs to reduce vulnerability, addressed all three components of vulnerability.

Evacuation and ingress/egress issues were key elements of two other activities undertaken by MFPD prior to 2017.

First, MFPD improved ingress/egress and evacuation and fire suppression effectiveness by delineating pre-attack zones across the community in their wildland fire initial attack plan. MFPD utilized these pre-attack zones (which are essentially sub-units of the community that were delineated prior to firefighters attacking a future, hypothetical wildfire) in their community education efforts, planning process, and printed high-resolution paper maps of each zone that were pre-packed in a portable file box for distribution to non-MFPD fire suppression resources in the event of a wildfire. Nine of the interviewees noted the utility of these maps in facilitating greater life safety for firefighters and increased suppression effectiveness, because the maps were able to help resources not familiar with the area to navigate the community safely and quickly and find the pre-designated water sources and equipment staging areas in Montecito, which were also marked on the map.

Second, while MFPD implemented several new fire codes focused specifically on structures (e.g., banning cedar shakes for roofing and siding, requiring boxed eaves), a new requirement for wider driveways focused on reducing exposure through improved evacuation, and increasing adaptive capacity by facilitating firefighter safety during fire suppression activities and post-fire clean up. In Montecito, as in many WUI communities, many of the homes are located at the end of long (>100 m), narrow, winding driveways that terminate at garages. Increasing driveway width and turnaround space supports larger fire apparatus and other large equipment allowed firefighters access these areas, and safely use a tactic referred to as “fire following.” Fire following is frequently used during extreme conditions, wherein firefighters (1) prepare homes to resist an oncoming wildfire, (2) retreat from the home or neighborhood when extreme fire behavior and direct flames from the fire front threaten their life safety, and then (3) “follow” behind the flaming front and re-engage with the home or in the neighborhood. During this re-engagement, they focus on extinguishing portions of the structure that are on fire, extinguishing spot fires on the property, remove flaming debris from structures (e.g., flaming palm fronds on the roof or deck), and wetting down vegetation if there are additional threats for re-ignition (e.g., additional spot fires). Fire following depends on firefighters being able to safely navigate to a home and turn around so that they can evacuate rapidly if needed; driveway design is paramount to this dependency.

The effectiveness of fire suppression efforts was directly supported by the pre-fire vulnerability reduction efforts undertaken by MFPD. Interviewees noted that they were able to use fire following tactics because homes were fire-resistant, giving firefighters time to engage and remove flammable debris before a structure became fully involved with fire. Firefighters also described being able to engage because most homes had sufficient defensible space to make it safe for them to do so, without fear of entrapment. This was of particular concern due to entrapment of firefighters that occurred on the nearby Jesusita Fire in 2009, which was associated with lack of defensible space and evacuation routes.

Interviewees also noted that suppression effectiveness was amplified by the reduction of roadside fuels, which allowed them to conduct backfiring operations along some parts of the road system and hold the fire along other segments. Interviewees described the difference between other portions of the Thomas Fire in Santa Barbara County, where heavy roadside vegetation created a “tunnel effect” that inhibited large fire apparatus passage (leading to over a dozen homes destroyed in one nearby canyon), and Montecito, where roadside clearance eliminated vegetation tunnels and facilitated two large city fire apparatus being able to pass each other on narrow roads. Videos taken by some interviewees further demonstrated how such clearance improved firefighter safety given the low visibility created by heavy smoke. Several firefighter fatalities in the US have been attributed to exiting the roadway due to lack of visibility in smoky conditions.

Both defensible space and roadside fuel treatments were supplemented by the community fuel treatments implemented by MFPD, which served to “link” together with the fuel reductions undertaken by residents and along roadways. All but one interviewee described this network of fuels reduction as being vital to effective suppression efforts and structure protection, specifically because it allowed firefighters to engage the fire safely. Of the seven primary residences destroyed in Montecito, two were located below a ‘gap’ in the fuel treatment network, and the loss of the remaining dwellings was primarily attributed to the presence of fuels immediately adjacent to the structure, and inaccessibility for firefighters to support the fire following tactic. These losses were attributed to fire exposure that was not mitigated.