The Dice Are Loaded

Wildfire season predictions, budgets, who most feels the impact of wildfire, is this adapting? And of course word on Texas.

Just one thing:

Texas is dominating the wildfire news at present, with some major coverage by The New York Times who has this collection of resources including a wildfire tracker. But if you are just going to read one thing, I would spend the time on this work by researchers which draws a connection between extreme heat, smoke and an increase in hospitalizations (especially for the most vulnerable).?

“This additional burden is not random,” said Tarik Benmarhnia, a study author and climate change epidemiologist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. “This is concentrated in very, very specific communities, and these communities are systematically less advantaged, with less resources and with more racial and ethnic minorities.”

This week:

• ?? Fire, Generally | First gigafire for Texas, Federal Wildland Firefighter Pay, climate change, solid evidence of the benefit of prescribed burns and thinning, federal tax credits for home hardening and… zombie fires…
• ?? Climate | Climate change… or is it? Rate hikes and small business, bad air
• ?? Firefighting | USDA investment in fire resilience, PFAs-free clothing, PBAs, WUI codes and a new chopper
• ?? Firetech | Rain Sikorsky Update, Watch Duty in Texas, NOAA invests in better fire weather tools
• ?? What’s burning? | Australia, China, Guatemala, Texas

Notes from the Fire Tower

Tea Leaves

While there’s undoubtedly wildfires ongoing in Australia , here in the north right now the media is largely looking into the tea leaves (aka temperature predictions, drought conditions, zombie fires and budgets for firefighting) to try to prepare for the coming season.

It’s also prime conference season for those who get busy during fire season, and I’m heading to an Aerial Firefighting Conference later today. I am very much looking forward to hearing from a broad swath of fire leadership on so many of the topics we read about all year, and I’ll be sure to report back here and on Rain’s website with notes and observations from that field.

Also, a little note that I regret every time Rain work delays these posts, but last week when I normally would have kicked this out instead I was managing our own update (more on that in the Firetech section). I do always look forward to sharing our own news so that's a small comfort, at least.

Fire, Generally

First gigafire for Texas, Federal Wildland Firefighter Pay, climate change, solid evidence of the benefit of prescribed burns and thinning, federal tax credits for home hardening and… zombie fires…

• Texas has just experienced their largest fire, ever —its first gigafire, fueled by wind, freezing temperatures and dry weather, scorching vast acreage of ranchland, killing two and devastating ranching communities in the Texas panhandle. The Washington Post says the fires are dying down , while other outlets say that firefighters in Texas are hoping for favorable weather and may get rain, lightning, high winds and snow .?
• ?? Nearby, a fire chief fighting a structure fire has also perished , not directly in the wildfires but when responding to a structure fire after a week working on them. Though the official cause of death hasn’t been? It’s a stark reminder of the risk of working through exhaustion that firefighters face.?
• The Conversation , and NPR (among others) cover a federal budget cut that threatens Forest Service hiring ahead of a risky wildfire season with a look at this just-released (by NOAA) seasonal temperature outlook. Update: funding is secured (hat tip to The Hotshot Wake Up for keeping us informed as legislators move to, “keep the pay boost from the Infrastructure Act and ensure current staffing levels are maintained.”).
• Researchers offer solid proof that forest thinning and prescribed burns are an effective way to reduce extreme fire behavior.?
• US House of Reps bill to watch on a federal tax credit for home hardening , with the intent to help homeowners facing the double threat of increased fire risk and rising insurance costs. “The federal government needs to be more proactive in helping families dealing with the threat of wildfires,” said [Representative Kevin] Kiley. (Republican, CA)
• So.... anyone who reads much fire news was probably worried about over-wintering 'zombie' fires in Canada from last summer.... and apparently with good reason .

"The dice are loaded, the deck is stacked — whatever phrase you want to use, there is a high likelihood of a very active spring." —Mike Flannigan, wildfire expert and professor at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, B.C.

Climate

Climate change… or is it? Rate hikes and small business, and bad air

• World Weather Attribution does not find a connection between climate change and the deadly fires in Chile —important to note, since climate change reporting is trendy… though on the same fires others do suggest these types of fires may become more common as the climate changes .?
• Small businesses in rural California face risk of closure as PG&E hike rates to pay for upgrades and safety measures.
• Quote I missed for the last issue but don’t want to skip from this coverage of a report from First Street on the anticipation of a looming 50% jump in exposure to bad air quality .?

Without more options for protecting themselves, people may feel they have no choice but to endure the smoke, Dr. Henning [director of the Institute for Climate, Water and the Environment at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash.] said. “Is that adapting?” he asked. “I don’t think it is. It’s actually just suffering.”

Firefighting

USDA investment in fire resilience, PFAs-free clothing, PBAs, WUI codes and a new chopper

• US invests a further $500 million in addressing fire readiness in the WUI , from the USDA.
• Firefighter Sean Conant launched a PFAs-free line of clothing for firefighters , FILO (First In, Last Out). Story here .?
• Sierra Club has this excellent history of prescribed burn associations , which turn out to hearken back to 1920s quail hunters in the southeastern US…
• San Diego is getting a new firefighting helicopter for $21 million.
• Fantastic short film worth watching about how Austin worked to build one of the only Wildland Urban Interface fire codes in the US . Hat tip to @Kate Dargan Marquis for surfacing this.

"If you don't get your community stakeholders invested in these codes you just have a bunch of words on paper, in a book, stuck on a shelf somewhere." —Chief Joel G. Baker, Fire Chief, Austin TX?

Firetech

Rain Sikorsky Update, Watch Duty in Texas, NOAA invests in better fire weather tools

• What an update from Watch Duty —they pushed their product out for Texas as the fast-moving fires there created hazardous conditions for residents, and required evacuations. ??????????
• ICYMI—NOAA is investing $34 million to build better fire tools, early fire weather prediction, detection, smoke predictions, and so on. Read more in the news release from NOAA .?
• Rain received coverage in Government Technology for our update on our work with Sikorsky , an update which you can also watch in video form here .

“Early detection is critical to successfully combating wildfires, and autonomous helicopters fitted with AI technologies could respond quickly to and suppress a fire before it has time to burn out of control.” —Jim McKay, Government Technology

What’s burning?

• Australia , China , Guatemala , Texas .

Thanks for reading, it’s always a pleasure to share Fire News of the moment with you all. If you like this update be sure to share it, leave a comment, subscribe.

Andrea