Above Photo: In this Sept. 27, 2020, file photo, a house burns on Platina Road at the Zogg Fire near Ono, Calif. Pacific Gas & Electric has been charged with manslaughter and other crimes, Friday, Sept. 24, 2021, in a Northern California wildfire last year that killed four people and destroyed hundreds of homes. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope, File) San Francisco – Pacific Gas & Electric was charged Friday with involuntary manslaughter and other crimes after its equipment sparked a Northern California wildfire that killed four people and destroyed hundreds of homes last year, prosecutors said. It is the latest legal action against […]
Wildfire
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Protests Against Greed And Inequality Are Spreading Like Wildfire Through Latin America By Alan Macleod, Mintpress News. October 25, 2020 Protests Against Greed And Inequality Are Spreading Like Wildfire Through Latin America2020-10-252020-10-25https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.pngPopularResistance.Orghttps://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2020/10/latinamerica-e1603655060183.jpg200px200px Above photo: Fire from a molotov cocktail explodes in front of police as a police vehicle shoots water at protesters who marched against the commemoration of the discovery of the Americas, organized by Indigenous groups demanding autonomy and the recovery of ancestral land in Santiago, Chile, Oct. 12, 2020. Esteban Felix | AP. Historic protests are taking place across Latin America as people take to the streets to voice […]
A firetruck drives along state Highway 168 last month while battling the Creek Fire in the Shaver Lake community of Fresno County, Calif. Noah Berger/AP hide caption toggle caption Noah Berger/AP A firetruck drives along state Highway 168 last month while battling the Creek Fire in the Shaver Lake community of Fresno County, Calif. Noah Berger/AP Updated at 4:37 p.m. ET In a reversal, the White House has approved California’s request for federal disaster relief for wildfire recovery, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday. California is dealing with the damage caused by wildfires that have burned through nearly 3,000 square miles, killing […]
More than 4 million acres have burned in California during this year’s wildfire season. Nearly 17,000 firefighters are still working to contain at least 23 major fires in the state. Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images More than 4 million acres have burned in California during this year’s wildfire season. Nearly 17,000 firefighters are still working to contain at least 23 major fires in the state. Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images California hit a grim milestone on Sunday as the total number of acres burned this wildfire season crossed 4 million, according to […]
Great Basin National Incident Management One Team Public Information Officers Wayne Patterson, left, and Mike Ferris, center, check out rock fall that fell from high cliffs causing damage onto I-70 below making it dangerous for passing vehicles during the Grizzly Creek Fire in Glenwood Canyon on August 17, 2020 near Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/Denver Post via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/Denver Post via Getty Images Great Basin National Incident Management One Team Public Information Officers Wayne Patterson, left, and Mike Ferris, center, check out rock fall that fell from high cliffs causing damage […]
The wildfires engulfing the West Coast have become so dire in Oregon that state police have established a new type of emergency response: a mobile morgue. The state-run facility in Linn County, about two hours outside of Portland, will be operated by a 75-member regional response team that is searching incinerated properties for survivors and victims. While the wildfires have hit 10 states across the country, Oregon has been among the worst affected, with more than 30 active fires, at least 900,000 acres burned, eight deaths, and at least 50 people missing. More than 10 percent of the state’s population has […]
Fox News host Laura Ingraham falsely claimed on Monday night that anti-fascist activists were behind the disastrous wildfires currently ravaging the West Coast, a rumor that has been repeatedly debunked by local authorities and the FBI. Taking issue with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden blasting President Donald Trump as a “climate arsonist” for denying climate change is a key factor in the blazes, The Ingraham Angle host groused that the former vice president didn’t appear to have a plan for combatting the fires. “Did Biden anywhere in that speech lay out his solution to prevent any wildfires in the future or […]
As of Sunday afternoon, there were only about 20 buildings still standing in the city of Detroit, Oregon. The wildfires raging along the West Coast hit the small, rural enclave three hours outside of Portland over the weekend, burning a majority of the community’s structures—including City Hall, where the fire department’s office is based. Locals have suggested the destruction was as if “a bomb went off.” “We have approximately 20-25 structures still standing, and the rest are gone,” the Idanha-Detroit Rural Fire Protection District said on their Facebook page, noting that several firefighters currently on the frontlines of these massive blazes […]
PORTLAND—When Lucy Francisco of Medford, Oregon, learned that the Almeda fire had burned through two small towns and was racing toward her city, she didn’t wait to be evacuated. She knew what to pack. She had a list on her phone, which she’d gone through again and again over the years. She and her husband grabbed their two young children, jumped in the car, and headed north. “It was so smoky, I was literally crying, so scared we were driving into another fire,” Francisco told The Daily Beast. They were: Fires outside of Eugene were blocking their path. So they pivoted […]
Tina Landis, organizer and author of the new book “Climate Solutions: Beyond Capitalism,” joined Radio Sputnik Friday to discuss the devastating wildfires consuming much of the US West Coast and the inextricable links between capitalism and the climate crisis. “So just overnight, one of the fires, the August Complex Fire that is north of the San Francisco Bay Area in Mendocino County, nearly doubled in size, and it’s now over 700,000 acres. The biggest fire in California history was 459,000 acres. That gives you some perspective on how huge these fires are and how fast they can grow,” Landis told By […]
On Friday morning, days after wildfires overtook Butte County, California, relatives of 49-year-old Kelly Burke were frantically searching for her and spreading the word that she was missing on social media. One neighbor in the woods near her town, Berry Creek, claimed to see Burke evacuate with friends, but no one could reach her. “Living in Idaho and not being able to search for mom is killing me,” Burke’s daughter Chelsea Vonarmfelt wrote on Facebook. The next morning, Vonarmfelt began a long drive from Boise, intent on finding Burke, who’d vanished after the North Complex fire leveled her rural community of […]
When he couldn’t reach his cousin Jake Hyland on Monday, Jim Mabry drove to his family’s remote property in rural Washington state, where wildfires turned pastures of 4-foot-high sage into dust. Jake and his wife, Jamie, along with their 1-year-old son, Uriel, were visiting their land in Okanogan County when flames from the Cold Springs Fire ripped through the area. Relatives couldn’t reach the couple, or emergency services, because power lines were down. On Tuesday, Mabry discovered Jake’s truck stuck in a ravine, about a quarter of a mile from the land. The vehicle had blown through a barbed wire fence. […]
The remains of three people were discovered north of Sacramento near the site of a large-scale wildfire, which has left several others seriously injured as rescuers search for 12 missing persons amid the blaze. Two of the deceased victims were discovered in one location, while the third was found separately, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said, noting they had not yet been identified. Out of 85 missing persons reports filed in relation to the fire, 12 have not yet been located, he added.Several others were severely wounded after being trapped overnight in the fire, dubbed the ‘Bear Fire,’ according to CalFire […]
The West Coast of the United States awoke Wednesday morning to a dark orange sky as wildfire smoke enshrouded wide swaths of the region in darkness and sent ash raining from the sky. Dozens of gargantuan fires are burning in California, Washington, Oregon, and Colorado. Blazes in Oregon surpassed 330,000 acres. Hundreds of homes have been destroyed and tens of thousands of people evacuated. “We expect to see a great deal of loss, both in structures and in human lives,” said Oregon Gov. Kate Brown. “This could be the greatest loss of human lives and property due to wildfire in our […]
The Dolan Fire, pictured Aug. 22, has burned more than 37,000 acres along the central California coast. On Tuesday, more than a dozen firefighters battling the blaze deployed portable fire shelters, and three were hospitalized with injuries. Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Im hide caption toggle caption Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Im The Dolan Fire, pictured Aug. 22, has burned more than 37,000 acres along the central California coast. On Tuesday, more than a dozen firefighters battling the blaze deployed portable fire shelters, and three were hospitalized with injuries. Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Im Three firefighters […]
In this photo from the Whitman County Sheriff’s Office, little remains of a building in Malden, Wash. A fast-moving wildfire destroyed 80% of the town on Labor Day. Whitman County Sheriff’s Office/Facebook hide caption toggle caption Whitman County Sheriff’s Office/Facebook In this photo from the Whitman County Sheriff’s Office, little remains of a building in Malden, Wash. A fast-moving wildfire destroyed 80% of the town on Labor Day. Whitman County Sheriff’s Office/Facebook Almost every structure in the small farming town of Malden in eastern Washington state was destroyed by a fast-moving fire Monday as high winds created what officials described as […]
Jesús Ahumada (left) oversees farm workers picking strawberries. He talks with Henry Gonzales, the Monterey County agricultural commissioner who secured more than 330,000 masks for farm workers there. Erika Mahoney/KAZU hide caption toggle caption Erika Mahoney/KAZU Jesús Ahumada (left) oversees farm workers picking strawberries. He talks with Henry Gonzales, the Monterey County agricultural commissioner who secured more than 330,000 masks for farm workers there. Erika Mahoney/KAZU With precision, farm workers swiftly harvest rows of strawberries at an organic field in Salinas, Calif. It’s hard work, even without a global pandemic and wildfires burning in the background. Four major wildfires erupted across […]
Wildfire, Hurricanes, Floods And Droughts Quadrupled In Cost Since 1980 By Bob Berwyn, Inside Climate News. August 26, 2020 Wildfire, Hurricanes, Floods And Droughts Quadrupled In Cost Since 19802020-08-262020-08-26https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.pngPopularResistance.Orghttps://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2020/08/fire.png200px200px A new report looks at the price of climate-linked natural disasters and how global warming is making them worse. Lisa Paul was still recovering from the wildfire trauma of 2017 when she experienced a renewed wave of sickening dread last week, the skies above her home and vineyard in the mountains east of Sonoma, California, filled with lightning that sparked hundreds of wildfires. “I had pretty close to a panic attack when the Hennessy […]
Sarah Hawkins and Andy Pestana lost their home, farm and several of their animals in the LNU Lightning Complex fire. Andy Pestana hide caption toggle caption Andy Pestana Sarah Hawkins and Andy Pestana lost their home, farm and several of their animals in the LNU Lightning Complex fire. Andy Pestana The flames from wildfires raging across Northern California did not spare Andy Pestana and Sarah Hawkins’ home and farm in Vacaville, Calif., on Wednesday. “Our barn, all of our farming equipment, our greenhouse, the house,” Hawkins tells NPR’s David Greene on Morning Edition. “The house is [now] just a six-inch layer […]
BROOKS, CA—By Friday evening, northern California’s LNU Lightning Complex fire had become the second-largest wildfire in state history, killing at least five people, destroying 500 structures, and forcing evacuations in two cities and an Air Force base. It was just 15 percent contained. But up in rural Capay Valley, as the historic blaze crept within two miles of Cache Creek Casino Resort and the sun blazed orange behind blooms of smoke, hundreds of gamblers shirked both fire and the coronavirus pandemic to enjoy a night working the slots and trying their luck at the tables. “These fires are going to continue […]
Thousands of California residents were under evacuation orders Wednesday as dozens of wildfires continued to tear through the state, sparked by lightning storms and an unrelenting heatwave. As of Wednesday afternoon, there were about 367 fires raging across California—23 of them considered major blazes—Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a press briefing. After more than 100,000 residents were ordered to flee their homes in one northern California city, Newsom has declared a state of emergency and called on the California National Guard to help with relief efforts. “This fire season has been very active,” Newsom said, calling Wednesday “another challenging day.” He […]
PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSMiDddiIFSOxakL83fG6GA/ Austin Steinbart (left) , Mike Harris (right) In this episode and interview with Austin Steinbart, we discuss the question many people ask: Is the Q-Anon movement a disinfo psyop to keep people from taking action? We were told to “trust the plan” and to “trust sessions”. To date we have seen little movement and people are becoming frustrated with the lack of concrete action.What is the main feature of the interview is the simple acknowledgement that virtually everyone in the USA knows something is drastically wrong. The left is rioting and burning cities to […]
Firefighters across the nation consult a go-to website for cautionary tales. The “Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center” shares things that have gone wrong so that next time everyone can hopefully avoid the pitfalls. Today, the site is brimming with the uncharted challenges of combating natural disasters during a pandemic. It’s hard enough to confront a blaze, or hurricane, or earthquake at the best of times. Weather forecasters expect a busy natural disaster season, following Hurricane Hanna’s debut last weekend. But the historic knowledge of how to cope no longer applies, and the Lessons Learned website’s posts paint a disturbing picture. While […]
Health Editor’s Note: Mr. Barry is a professor at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and the author of “The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History.” Pandemic Could Get Much, Much Worse. We Must Act Now. By John M. Barry/Opinion New York Times When you mix science and politics, you get politics. With the coronavirus, the United States has proved politics hasn’t worked. If we are to fully reopen both the economy and schools safely — which can be done — we have to return to science. To understand just how bad things are […]
In November 2018 a faulty electricity pylon triggered a wildfire in the tinder-dry bush of northern California which raged out of control for 17 days, killing 85 people. So who was to blame and how is Pacific Gas & Electric still soldiering on after years of bungling and lawsuits? The CEO of Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), Bill Johnson, appeared in a courtroom in Butte County, northern California, on Tuesday, 16 June, and apologised for his company’s role in the events of 8 November 2018. Around 6.15am that morning a faulty power line near one of PG&E’s hydro-electric dams started […]
After a series of devastating wildfires, like the 2019 Kincade Fire, California had planned on spending billions to prepare for climate-driven disasters. Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images After a series of devastating wildfires, like the 2019 Kincade Fire, California had planned on spending billions to prepare for climate-driven disasters. Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images With the coronavirus pandemic eroding state budgets across the country, many communities risk having this disaster make them less prepared for looming climate-driven disasters. Still recovering from devastating wildfires, California was poised to spend billions of dollars to […]
Residents in Solano County, California have been ordered to flee their homes after a large vegetation fire broke out just miles from two cities. Firefighters are using aerial retardants to protect neighborhoods. The blaze broke out Saturday near the cities of Winters and Vacaville, and quickly doubled in size to 1,200 acres, authorities told local media. Officials said the fire has been five percent contained. Those living in the fire’s direct path have been ordered to evacuate to a center in Vacaville. Firefighter units have deployed planes to drop aerial retardants in an effort to protect residential areas. We continue to […]
When former Vice President Joe Biden said last week that he didn’t remember “any complaint ever having been made” by former staffer Tara Reade, in his first public remarks responding to her accusation that he sexually assaulted her in 1993, a hair stylist from New Jersey sought to remind him. “Joe Biden says he can’t remember Tara Reade,” Twitter user @prettyjanice888 wrote roughly 12 hours after Biden’s interview. “Perhaps this will help to refresh his memory. The photo attached to the tweet showed a younger, early-nineties-era Biden gently touching the sleeve of a woman—purportedly Reade. The image was subsequently shared more […]