It's the first time since July that the state has been fire-free. "That's more than 240 days of fire activity" across the country's most populous state, New South Wales Rural Fire Service said. Continue Reading All Bushfires Read More
The Bureau of Land Management announced a proposal Friday that would fund up to 11,000 miles of strategic fuel breaks in Idaho, Oregon, Washington, California, Nevada and Utah in an effort to better control wildfires. Read More
The utility hopes the settlement will help it emerge from bankruptcy proceedings by the end of the year. When it declared bankruptcy in January, the company faced potential liabilities of $30 billion. Continue Reading PG&E Read More
Many are commuting to school in Paradise from surrounding cities and towns, including almost all of the town's high school football team, the Bobcats. The team is undefeated, and is about to find out if they are making it to the playoffs. Read More
Don’t be fooled by the fall weather and cold temps hitting the Northwest this week. Washington officials are warning people to keep an eye on outdoor burning this time of year. It can still spark a fire, especially with strong winds whipping through the state Monday night through Tuesday morning.
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Connecting different projects – like these large-scale fuels management ones – with efforts by homeowners down below helps make the landscape more resilient. It’s part of a larger effort to help central Washington avoid the fate of towns like Paradise, California, which was devastated by the Camp Fire in 2018.
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Labor Day weekend marked the second anniversary of the start of the Eagle Creek Fire, which burned almost 50,000 acres of forest land in the Columbia River Gorge. Continue Reading Columbia River Gorge Inches Closer To Recovery, Read More
A Washington firefighter was badly burned over the Labor Day weekend while fighting a small brush fire in Okanogan County. He’s currently in a medically induced coma at a Seattle hospital. Continue Reading Okanogan County Read More
Prescribed fires are credited with making forests healthier and stopping or slowing the advance of some blazes. Despite those successes, there are plenty of reasons they are not set as often as officials would like, ranging from poor conditions to safely burn to bureaucratic snags and public opposition. Read More
After the 2018 Camp Fire, scientists detected dangerous levels of cancer-causing benzenes from burned plastics in some water lines. Recent tests show the problem has not gone away. Chronic exposure to benzenes can heighten the risk of blood cancers such as leukemia. Read More
The fire that engulfed Notre Dame cathedral shocked the world earlier this year. And a wildfire in July on Rattlesnake Mountain in southeast Washington similarly shocked Northwest tribes. Continue Reading ‘A Total Sense Of Read More
A fire district around Wenatchee has come up with a new way to make wildland fires less severe. Chelan County Fire District 1 is ditching the hand tools and machinery that firefighters traditionally use to thin overgrown brush. Instead, they’re turning to a more natural approach to thin out fuels around the Broadview neighborhood that burned in the 2015 Sleepy Hollow Read More
It’s been a relatively quiet summer so far for Northwest wildland firefighters. But after a couple days of lightning storms in eastern and central Washington, paired with dry and windy conditions, more fires are starting to flare up.
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Four years ago, the Sleepy Hollow Fire burned to the edge of Wenatchee. Flames rushed through, consuming brush and cheatgrass and quickly destroying 28 homes and three businesses. Now, with the help of a federal grant, firefighters are getting rid of some of those grasses to better protect homes. Read More
A group of around 30 people wearing hardhats gathered for Mass in the cathedral on Saturday, exactly two months after a severe fire. The service was not open to the public. Continue Reading Notre Dame Celebrates 1st Mass Since Read More
At the Hanford Nuclear Site in southeastern Washington, and across the West, winter’s deep snow and a cool spring have produced lots of brush and grass. That’s a problem for the coming fire season. Continue Reading Big Spring Read More
The 2018 Camp Fire destroyed 90% of the town of Paradise, Calif., and killed 85 people. Should the federal government jump in to rebuild communities at high risk of future disasters? Continue Reading Rethinking Disaster Recovery After 2018 Read More
Springtime means it’s morel mushroom harvesting season. Depending on where fires burned last summer, mushroom collecting could take you to different spots across the Northwest. Continue Reading Mushroom Hunters, Rejoice: Springtime Crop Read More
Holy Week for Catholics is the week leading up to Easter Sunday creating a time of reflection and prayer, but that was interrupted abruptly when a Catholic symbol, Notre Dame Cathedral, was engulfed in flames. Local Catholics see this as a way to reunite the faith around the world and as a time to help the people of France a half a world away. Read More
More than two months after the Camp Fire, the small city of Chico, Calif. is struggling to handle an influx of an estimated 20,000 new people from neighboring Paradise. Continue Reading Crisis Builds In Chico In Read More
Firefighters and forest managers are losing valuable time to prepare for the upcoming wildland fire season as the partial government shutdown continues. Continue Reading Shutdown Hampers Wildfire Preparedness And Training Read More
A young black bear that was badly burned in the 2014 Carlton Complex Fire in north-central Washington and later became an international inspiration, has died. Officials with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife say Cinder the bear was killed by a hunter in fall 2017 but have just this year discovered remains and determined it was Cinder. Read More
A suspicious fire early Friday morning destroyed the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses in Lacey, Washington. If confirmed as arson, this would be the sixth attack on the faith in Thurston County this year. Continue Reading Read More
The Northwest is already seeing the effects of climate change, according to a new national climate assessment. Continue Reading Report: Climate Change Is Already Bringing Problems To Northwest — And It Will Get WorseRead More
Both those homes burned to the ground in the historic Camp Fire. The scale of the fire's destruction is so spread out that very little of the towns of Paradise, Magalia and Concow remain. So far, the fire scorched 230 square miles — an area the size of Chicago. So many evacuees have fled to nearby Chico, prompting local businesses to try and give them a place to exhale. Read More
As flames consume parts of California, an unexpected group of firefighters has put their lives at risk to protect communities: prison inmates. For $2 per day — and another $1 an hour when battling fires — qualified inmates can volunteer to help authorities combat fires. Read More
Among the significant changes is that schools could make it harder to prove allegations. Instead of only a "preponderance of the evidence," schools could demand "clear and convincing evidence." Continue Reading Betsy Read More
Authorities say at least 63 people died in the Northern California wildfire known as the Camp Fire, which has burned through at least 218 square miles of land and consumed the town of Paradise. Seven sets of remains were discovered on Thursday. Read More
The Camp Fire tore through Paradise, Calif., the morning of Nov. 8, 2018. Paul Weingartner, a nurse at the Adventist Health Feather River hospital in Paradise, recounts how it unfolded, and how he narrowly escaped, to return to the hospital and treat patients. Read More
The entire town of 27,000 people was evacuated in front of the wildfire in Northern California. The fire is the latest in a string of disastrous wildfires to hit the state in the past year. Continue Reading Paradise Lost: Northern Read More
After wildfire season ends each year, land managers start planning what comes next for the areas that burned. Often, the strategy used to ensure the forests return is to salvage log and then replant. But a recent study suggests that in some areas, it might be just as effective to leave the forest alone. Read More
Not all wildfire is a force of destruction. Many of our favorite Northwest plants and animals have evolved to depend on it. Continue Reading Why Many Northwest Animals And Plants Need WildfireRead More
Fire consumed an abandoned building in the Olympia Brewery Complex in Tumwater early Monday, Oct. 8. The Olympia beer name is now owned by Pabst Brewing Company and brewed under contract by MillerCoors in California, but still distributed widely throughout the Northwest. Read More
State and federal agencies throughout the Northwest are starting to lift burn restrictions on some lands. The Wildfire Preparedness level for the region was downgraded to its lowest stage -- Level 1 -- this week. But the region is below normal for precipitation and has been so for the past two months. Read More
More people are living in places that are prone to wildfires. That means during fire season, they live with the very real possibility of having to evacuate on very short notice. Continue Reading For Many In The West, Year-Round Read More
Wildfire represents both risk and reward for some small communities in Washington. Walking the line between a "good fire" and a "bad fire" can be tricky. Continue Reading In Washington’s Methow Valley, Fire Means Danger, Loss, Read More
Deaths related to air pollution from wildfires could double by the end of the century, according to newly published research into the links between climate change, wildfires and human health. Continue Reading Study: Fire-Filled Future Could Read More
Federal and state agencies have come to realize fires should not be fought at all costs and, in fact, many should not be fought at all. Excluding natural fire led to forests burning in bigger, more destructive ways. Each year, hazardous fuels accumulate faster than we can reduce them through selective logging and burning. Read More
An Australian newspaper is reporting that hunters shot at two firefighters from down under while they were battling the Miriam Fire near White Pass, Washington. But law enforcement has debunked the claim. Continue Reading Read More
The Trump Administration has called for more logging of western forests to reduce wildfire risks. But people on the ground in the west say the solution is thinning and forest restoration, not logging. Continue Reading Will More Logging Save Western Read More
Smoke from wildfires is blanketing much of the West. That's ruining some crops and may be stunting others. And it's making it difficult or unsafe for laborers to pick the harvest. Continue Reading As Wildfires Burn, Smoke Chokes Read More
The U.S. has more than 46 million homes in this wildfire danger zone and more people moving in right when climate change is making for longer, hotter and drier wildfire seasons.Here are a few steps you can take to protect your home from wildfire. Continue Reading How Read More
For people living in the “wildland-urban interface,” wildfire risk is the new normal, and the risk is increasing as more people move into places where cul-de-sac meets forest or sagebrush. Continue Reading Four Read More
On Tuesday, Aug. 14, a water-scooping airplane crashed while working the Horns Mountain Fire in northeastern Washington. The pilot walked away with minor injuries.
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Fires across the region have blanketed the Northwest in smoke. Blazes in California and British Columbia are also adding to the thick, reddish-gray haze.
Continue Reading Fires In Canada And California Add To Northwest’s Smoky HazeRead More
Air quality east of the Cascade Mountains has deteriorated as wildfires burn across Washington and Oregon. In Southern Oregon, the air is hazardous. In Central Washington, air quality is unhealthy for everyone. Continue Reading Breathing Read More
It was a wild weekend for wildfire in the Northwest. A cold front brought lightning and high winds -- but no rain -- to the region east of the Cascades already plagued by extremely dry conditions. Continue Reading ‘It Was Read More
Weather predictions across the West are calling for excessive heat and more dry weather this week. That forecast is anything but good news in the Northwest, where significant risk of wildfire continues to increase. Continue Reading Read More
A variety of forest experts say that one of the best ways to reduce the threat of these mega-blazes is to use fire itself. They say we need to increase the pace of prescribed fire and let some wildfires continue to burn when it’s safe to do so.Of course, there’s not nearly as much political support for letting fires burn as there is for putting fires out. Read More
Fire officials say this year is on par with 2014 and 2015 – two of the worst seasons on record in the Northwest. Things are ramping up nearly a month earlier than previous years, and resources are stretched thin. Continue Reading Resources Read More
