Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Get ready for busy wildfire season

Despite the slowest start to a wildfire season in a decade, the head of the U.S. Forest Service said Tuesday his agency is preparing for another busy year, but with fewer firefighters. Late winter storms have helped bring more snow and rain to some parts of the country, but Chief Tom Tidwell told the Associated Press in a telephone interview that much of the South and Southwest are expected to dry out by May and June as drought conditions persist. That will give way to a season much like last year, when more than 14,500 square miles - an area bigger than the state of Maryland - were charred. A dozen lives were also lost last year and more than 2,200 homes and businesses were destroyed. The predicted hot spots for wildfires this year? Tidwell pointed to Florida, Arizona, New Mexico and Southern California...more

1 comment:

johnr said...

The geniuses in the state of Wyoming recently passed a law making it a crime to leave a fire that is burning. How will this be handled if you see a fire burning on federal land such as a campfire or a lightening strike and you are prohibited to put it out because you have not been trained in fire control, thus you do not have a red card.If you put it out you will be subjected to prosecution which happened last year. Also, a lightening strike started a fire in the Medicine Bow national forest and a local rancher was not given permission to put it out so 96,000 acres burned. brilliant