New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Tuesday confirmed at least one person has died as a result of two large wildfires threatening Lincoln and Otero counties. “As many New Mexicans are already aware, we are battling two major fires,” Lujan Grisham said in a news conference in Santa Fe. Lujan Grisham declared a state […]
More than 500 structures have been damaged in New Mexico wildfires that forced the evacuation of an entire town of more than 7,000 people, officials said Tuesday as the fires remained active and uncontained. The South Fork Fire broke out Monday morning on the Mescalero Apache Reservation, and what had been a blaze of around […]
Residents of the mountain village of Ruidoso in southern New Mexico fled their homes under evacuation orders with little time to rescue belongings as fast-moving wildfires bore down on the village of 7,000 residents. Traffic clogged downtown streets of the normally pastoral village and summer vacation destination for hours on Monday as smoke darkened the […]
Crews battling wildfires across California on Tuesday, including the Post fire in Los Angeles County, face another day of warm summer heat and gusty winds that will push flames into tinder-dry fuel, weather forecasters warned. “Critical fire-weather conditions are expected through today for northwest Los Angeles County and the Ventura County mountains,” the National Weather […]
Firefighters in California increased their containment of a large wildfire in mountains north of Los Angeles on Monday after a weekend of wind-driven growth. The Post Fire was 8% surrounded after scorching nearly 23 square miles (60 square kilometres) and forcing the evacuation of at least 1,200 campers, off-roaders and hikers from the Hungry Valley […]
JAMM AQUINO / APRIL 17 As part of the investigation into the Aug. 8 Maui wildfire, the state Department of the Attorney General wants to question the head of the Maui Emergency Management Agency about what the county learned from the 2018 West Maui wildfires. In April, Attorney General Anne Lopez spoke about the Maui […]
Operations to help clear the Ironwood Fire were temporarily put on hold Friday evening due to a drone in the area, according to a post on X by the Bureau of Land Management’s Arizona Fire Management. The Ironwood Fire started about 4 p.m. Friday after a motor home caught fire and ammunition inside exploded, according […]
Three rusty water-trucks stand at the edge of Kibbutz Malkiya, on Israel’s border with Lebanon; little bigger than a family car, they look like something out of an old cartoon. A collection of industrial leaf-blowers is stacked nearby. “This is all we have,” resident Dean Sweetland explains. “We have just these – and the leaf-blowers […]
California has long depended on incarcerated people to battle wildfires. Since the end of World War II, the state has relied on inmates to staff its more than 200 “hand crews” deployed each fire season to lay hoses and help contain the blazes by cutting fire lines free of vegetation. But a steady decline in […]
Reality Check is a Bee series holding officials and organizations accountable and shining a light on their decisions. Have a tip? Email realitycheck@sacbee.com. A revived bipartisan measure in the House of Representatives’ farm bill claims it’ll save California’s giant sequoias from worsening wildfires. The Save Our Sequoias Act, heralded by former Rep. Kevin McCarthy before […]
Firefighters drop water and build fire line Monday where the Blue 2 Fire is burning in the Lincoln National Forest, about 8 miles north of Ruidoso. (Photo Courtesy US Forest Service) Two lightning-caused wildfires in northern and southern New Mexico have grown to a combined 20 square miles, according to the latest figures from firefighting […]
PEORIA, Ariz. – Wildfire season in the Valley is starting to pick up steam. Kurt Walker, Battalion Chief for Peoria Fire and Medical says that this season is comparable to two years ago when there was more precipitation in the colder months. Off season precipitation allows more brush and wildfire fuel to grow and create […]