California wildfires

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California Kicks Off 2021 With a Fiery Surge

Wildfire stats show a January with 3 times the five-year average for that month

(Newser) - If Californians were hoping for a better 2021, signs aren't looking good on the wildfire front. USA Today notes that it's not even the Golden State's traditional wildfire season yet, which typically runs from June through September , yet the year is kicking off with some alarming stats....

Wildfire Smoke Is Teeming With Microbes
Wildfire Smoke Is 
Teeming With Microbes
NEW STUDY
Feb 1, 2021 7:20 PM CST

Wildfire Smoke Is Teeming With Microbes

'The diversity of microbes that we've found are really mind-bending'

(Newser) - Inhaling smoke from wildfires might be even worse for your health than originally thought, researchers say. According to a study in the journal Science , wildfire smoke is teeming with microbes and fungi, and there has been little investigation of their effect on the people downwind. "There are many trillions...

Giant Trees Survived Hundreds of Fires. Then Came 2020

Wildfire devastated sequoia groves in California

(Newser) - Giant sequoias haven't just adapted to survive periodic wildfires, they rely on them for reproduction—but fires of the last few years have been very different. Researchers assessing the damage from September's Castle fire in California say it killed hundreds, possibly more than a thousand, of the enormous...

He Was Set to Sell 25K Baseball Cards. Then He Heard About Reese

California man donates entire collection to 9-year-old girl who lost her own in Creek Fire

(Newser) - California resident Kevin Ashford planned to sell his collection of 25,000 baseball cards for a small fortune. Instead, he's donated them to a 9-year-old baseball fan and player who lost her home—and the 200 baseball cards she collected over three years—in the devastating Creek Fire. Reese...

Amid Fierce Winds, 100K Ordered to Flee California Fires

2 firefighters critically injured near Irvine

(Newser) - California prepared for another round of dangerous fire weather Tuesday even as crews fought a pair of fast-moving blazes in the south that critically injured two firefighters and left more than 100,000 under evacuation orders. Some of the fiercest winds of the fire season drove fires up and down...

No Disaster Aid, Administration Tells California
Trump Reverses on Aid
After Call With Governor
UPDATED
Oct 16, 2020 4:45 PM CDT

Trump Reverses on Aid After Call With Governor

State requests for disaster relief are seldom turned down

(Newser) - President Trump has reversed course and approved a previously rejected California application for disaster relief funds to clean up damage from six recent wildfires. Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement Friday that he had talked to Trump on the phone and that the president approved the major disaster declaration,...

California's Fire So Big It Gets a New Name

The August Complex fire has reached 'gigafire' status

(Newser) - On Monday came news that California's wildfires had reached a dismal milestone : a single fire had for the first time surpassed 1 million acres, with the August Complex fire now bigger than the state of Rhode Island. It turns out a fire of that size has a name, though...

Wildfires Grow on Epic Scale
Wildfires Grow
on Epic Scale
Oct 5, 2020 12:50 PM CDT

Wildfires Grow on Epic Scale

One California fire alone is burning across 1M acres

(Newser) - The staggering scale of California's wildfires reached another milestone Monday: A single fire surpassed 1 million acres, the AP reports. The new mark for the August Complex in the Coast Range between San Francisco and the Oregon border came a day after the total area of land burned by...

Thousands Evacuate as Wildfires Surge in Wine Country

One blaze in northern California burns 7K acres in less than 5 hours

(Newser) - Thousands of people fled new, rapidly moving wildfires in northern California on Monday that have scorched almost 10,000 acres. Nearly all of northern California is under a red flag warning by the National Weather Service, with a heat wave and gusty winds compounding the difficulties faced by firefighters. A...

Joe Rogan on Wildfire Rumors: 'I'm Very Upset With Myself'

Podcast host apologizes for spreading misinformation about fires out West

(Newser) - Comedian Joe Rogan moved his popular eponymous podcast to Spotify at the beginning of the month, and he got things moving last week by making an accusation regarding wildfires near Portland, Ore. "There is a madness going on there," Rogan said during Thursday's podcast, per CNN Business...

Out of a Gender Reveal Gone Wrong, a New Tragedy

Firefighter has died near Pinezanita, Calif., in blaze sparked by party

(Newser) - On Thursday night, police and firefighters began searching for a missing elite "Hotshot" firefighter near Pinezanita, Calif., which has been engulfed in flames from a blaze started during a gender reveal party, reports KTLA . By Friday morning, sad news had emerged, per CNN . "USDA Forest Service officials on...

Smoke From West Coast Fires Reaches DC, New York

And it has reportedly also reached Midwest, Canada, Europe

(Newser) - From Washington state to Washington, DC—the National Weather Service said Monday that smoke from the wildfires on the west coast of the US could be seen across the country at the National Mall. The NWS says the smoke caught a jet stream, moving at an altitude as high as...

Homeowner Finds Barn Gone, Animals Still Alive

Monday's windy forecast brings no relief out West in wildfire fight

(Newser) - A story out of rural Oregon provides a glimpse at the scope of the wildfire fight: NBC News reports that Upper McKenzie fire chief Rainbow Plews and several members of her volunteer crew lost their homes as they battled a blaze about 20 miles away. “I threw up. I...

'Mass Fatality Event' Looms in One State

But changing weather might help firefighters in Oregon and California

(Newser) - Diminishing winds and rising humidity helped firefighters battling deadly blazes in Oregon and California, but with dozens of people still missing, authorities in both states feared that the receding flames could reveal many more dead across the blackened landscape, the AP reports. Oregon's emergency management director said officials were...

Deadliest US Blaze of 2020: 'No Fighting This Fire'

At least 9 are dead as area burned in California surpasses size of Connecticut

(Newser) - Berry Creek, Calif., has been largely destroyed in what has become the deadliest fire of 2020, a year that has already shattered California records for the most area burned—more land than the state of Connecticut—and recorded the largest fire of all time in the state. Five of the...

10% of Oregon's Population Has Evacuated

That's more than half a million people

(Newser) - As Oregon continues to burn , more than 10% of the population—over half a million people—has been forced to evacuate. Wildfires have burned more than 1,400 square miles in the state of 4.2 million this week, the AP reports. The rest of the US Pacific Coast is...

Surreal Fire Images, Dangerous Air
Surreal Fire Images,
Dangerous Air
Sep 10, 2020 1:39 PM CDT

Surreal Fire Images, Dangerous Air

Images from the wildfires in the West

(Newser) - Just how bad are the wildfires in the West? The Los Angeles Times reports that roughly half of all Californians are exposed to air that exceeds safety thresholds for tiny particles known as PM2.5. That equates to about 20 million people. "Rarely have so many Californians breathed such...

Oregon Fires Could Be Worst in State's History

Hundreds of homes have been destroyed

(Newser) - Deadly windblown wildfires raging across the Pacific Northwest destroyed hundreds of homes in Oregon, the governor said Wednesday, warning it could be the greatest loss of life and property from wildfire in state history. The blazes from the top of the state to the California border caused highway closures and...

Skies Turn Orange &#39;Like a Scene From Mars&#39;
Skies Turn Orange
'Like a Scene
From Mars'
photo gallery
Sep 9, 2020 5:50 PM CDT

Skies Turn Orange 'Like a Scene From Mars'

Wildfires also create 'a strange smell' over the Bay Area

(Newser) - Wildfires raging through Oregon, Washington, California, and neighboring states caused an eerie orange light to appear over parts of the West Coast on Wednesday, NBC News reports. "I have never seen the sky in SF look like this in the nearly 20 years I've lived here," wrote...

Blaze Traps 14 California Firefighters

One was hospitalized in critical condition

(Newser) - A fast-moving wildfire in the mountains along California's central coast trapped 14 firefighters, who deployed emergency shelters as the blaze overran a fire station, authorities say. Several firefighters were treated for burns and one was hospitalized in critical condition Tuesday, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The US Forest Service...

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