Tag Archives: Wildfire

Manhunt prompts evacuation of Arizona wildlife park

By David Schwartz

PHOENIX (Reuters) – A manhunt for an armed fugitive that triggered the evacuation of a popular wildlife park south of the Grand Canyon ended peacefully on Monday with the arrest of the suspect, police in Arizona said.

The accused gunman was believed to have possibly fled into the Bearizona Wildlife Park after a confrontation with police that began as a traffic stop and turned into a high-speed chase, a spokesman for the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office said.

One passenger was thrown from the car during a getaway attempt, a second man was taken into custody when the car crashed, but a third fled on foot, firing at least one shot toward deputies from a handgun, according to the spokesman, Dwight D’Evelyn.

The suspect disappeared near the Bearizona park, a 168-acre private attraction nestled within the Kaibab National Forest at the edge of Williams, a gateway town to Grand Canyon National Park about 60 miles away.

As a precaution, Bearizona was closed and evacuated, with police escorting all 200 visitors and about 20 staff safely from the facility, spokeswoman Jocelyn Monteverde said. Public schools in Williams were also placed on lockdown during the manhunt, police said.

At about 6 p.m. local time, nearly six hours after the search began, police located the suspect, identified as John Freeman, in a highway culvert near Bearizona, and he was arrested without incident, D’Evelyn said.

Police said Freeman was wanted on a warrant from nearby Kingman, Arizona, but no further information about him was immediately released.

Bearizona is visited by some 300,000 tourists a year, many on their way to or from the Grand Canyon, located about an hour’s drive to the north, Monteverde said. It features a collection of bears, wolves, bison and other wildlife, some roaming a drive-through exhibit and others displayed in smaller zoo-like enclosures.

(Reporting by David Schwartz in Phoenix; Additional reporting and writing by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

Florida man’s book burning sparks wildfire, destroys homes: officials

Firefighters and firefighting equipment arrive to deal with wildfire that quickly spread across acres of land, damaging many homes and forcing residents to evacuate in this image released on social media in Nassau County, Florida, U.S. on March 22, 2017. Courtesy Florida Forest Service/Handout via REUTERS

By Gina Cherelus

(Reuters) – A Florida man’s illegal burning of paperback books sparked a wildfire that quickly spread across 400 acres of land, damaging or destroying as many as 15 homes and forcing residents to evacuate in the northeastern part of the state, officials said on Thursday.

The blaze started on Wednesday afternoon after the unidentified man burned books and magazines outside his home near Bryceville, about 20 miles west of Jacksonville, Florida Forest Service spokeswoman Annaleasa Winter told Reuters by telephone.

It is against Florida law to burn household garbage.

Dusty winds blew paper away from the initial burn site, Winter said. Firefighters initially were able to contain about five acres of flames, but strong winds caused the inferno to spiral out of control.

“What happened next was we had 40 to 50 miles-per-hour gusts of winds, and it pushed the embers right outside of the fire line and it just ran through a very dense forest and threatened many homes,” Winter said. “At least two homes are lost.”

The man accused of starting the fire was cited for an illegal burn but not charged with a crime, she said.

“This was not malicious,” Winter said. “But he will be liable for the cost of fighting the fire and any damage done.”

More than 170 emergency workers fought the flames throughout the night. By early Thursday, the fire was about 65 percent contained and no longer spreading, Forest Service officials said.

A video the agency posted on Twitter showed flames burning through dense stands of trees and thick clouds of smoke as bulldozers plowed through debris.

Up to 200 residents were asked to evacuate their homes and stay at nearby shelters. A few minor injuries to emergency workers were reported, Winter said.

(Reporting by Gina Cherelus in New York; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Dan Grebler)

U.S. wildfires ravage ranches in three states

Rancher Nancy Schwerzenbach walks with dogs through pasture burned by wildfires near Lipscomb, Texas, U.S., March 12, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

By Lucas Jackson

LIPSCOMB, Texas (Reuters) – When the Schwerzenbach family saw a wildfire racing toward their remote ranch in Lipscomb, Texas, there was no time to run.

“We had a minute or two and then it was over us,” said 56-year-old Nancy Schwerzenbach.

The fire, moving up to 70 miles per hour (112 kph), was one of several across more than 2 million acres (810,000 hectares) that hit the Texas Panhandle, Oklahoma and Kansas last week, causing millions of dollars of damage and killing thousands of livestock.

Burning through nearly all 1,000 acres of the Schwerzenbach ranch, the fire killed some 40 cattle. A mile away, a young man in the rural community was killed.

“The fire was about two miles away before we knew what happened to us,” she said.

Numerous smaller fires burned in Colorado, Nebraska and the Florida Everglades, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

In Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas ranchers are returning home to survey the damage from the fires, fueled by tinder-dry vegetation and high winds. Local farmers from the Great Plains have helped those who have been affected by the wildfires by donating hay and fencing material.

In Oklahoma, the fires scorched a Smithfield Foods Inc. hog farm in Laverne, killing some 4,300 sows.

“When we drive down the road and look out on the pasture lands, there’s no grass. There’s dead deer, dead cows, dead wildlife, miles of fence gone away. It looks like a complete desert,” said Ashland Veterinary Center co-owner Dr. Randall Spare, who is helping in relief efforts in Clark County, Kansas.

Oklahoma Department of Agriculture State Veterinarian Rod Hall said bulldozers were being used to bury dead animals.

“They’re digging large pits and burying the animals in there,” he said.

In Texas, state government agencies estimate about 1,500 cattle were lost, according to Steve Amosson, an economist at Texas A&M AgriLife Extension.

“When we value the deaths of cattle at market value, including disposal costs, we’re talking about $2.1 million at this point, and I expect that to go up,” he said. “We’re still dealing with chaos, they’re still trying to find cattle.”

Amosson estimates it could cost $6 million to recover 480,000 acres burned in Texas fires along with $4.3 million to replace and repair fences in the northern Texas Panhandle either destroyed by the fire or by cattle trampling them to escape the blaze.

Texas is the top U.S. cattle producing state with some 12.3 million head and Kansas is third at 6.4 million.

For Troy Bryant, 34, a rancher in Laverne, Oklahoma, the impact from the fires has been devastating. He lost livestock

worth about $35,000 and fencing worth about $40,000.

“We saw 4,000 acres burned here. Some places further west of here lost much more,” he said.

Click on http://reut.rs/2lXlAZK to see a photo related essay

(Reporting by Lucas Jackson in Lipscomb, Texas; Additional reporting by Renita D. Young and Theopolis Waters in Chicago; Writing and additional reporting by Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas; Editing by Melissa Fares and Diane Craft in New York)

Thousands of pigs die in Oklahoma wildfires at Smithfield Foods hog farm

(Reuters) – Wildfires devastated a Smithfield Foods Inc [SFII.UL] hog farm in Laverne, Oklahoma, killing an uncertain but potentially huge number of pigs, company and local officials said on Friday.

“Several thousands were lost,” said Luke Kanclerz, spokesman for the Oklahoma Forestry Services. “Such a large area was impacted by these fires, it’s taking time to collect information … there are no accurate numbers yet.”

Firefighters on Friday were still working to contain some of the grass fires that grew rapidly on Monday due to dry weather and parched prairie land in Texas, north and western Oklahoma and southern Kansas, burning nearly 2 million acres, killing six people and hundreds of cattle.

The Smithfield farm housed about 45,000 sows, according to the company website.

“While we are deeply thankful that no employees were harmed in the fire, we lament the unnecessary loss of animals and the devastation to the surrounding community,” Smithfield spokeswoman Kathleen Kirkham said in a statement.

Kirkham did not respond to a request for an estimate on how many sows at the farm had died.

Smithfield, the world’s largest pork producer, says it produces about 16 million hogs per year. The company is a subsidiary of WH Group Ltd.

(Reporting by Michael Hirtzer in Chicago; Editing by Tom Brown)

Wildfire threat remains after killing six, destroying numerous structures

(Reuters) – The threat of wildfires is expected to remain high on Wednesday in the U.S. Plains, where prairie fires have claimed six lives, prompted thousands of evacuations and destroyed numerous structures.

Fire weather advisories remained in effect in parts of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas where firefighters continued to battle wildfires stoked by high winds and tinder-dry vegetation over the last several days.

Low humidity along with 15 to 25 mph (25 to 40 kph) winds and ongoing drought conditions will continue to create elevated fire dangers throughout the region, the National Weather Service said in its advisories that also included Missouri and Nebraska.

Cooler temperatures, diminishing winds and a chance of rain were in the forecast for parts of the region over the weekend, but the weather service warned that the threat of wildfires remained in effect.

“Winds will be considerably lighter through the middle to latter part of the week. This will result in less threatening fire weather conditions. However, a limited to elevated risk will continue, given the dry conditions,” the service said.

The fires killed four people, including three ranch hands racing to herd livestock to safety, in the Texas Panhandle. One motorist died in Kansas on Monday from smoke inhalation, authorities said.

A woman in Oklahoma suffered a heart attack while trying to move cattle from harm’s way and died, NBC News reported. Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin declared an emergency in 22 counties hit by wildfires.

The Perryton fire blackened more than 300,000 acres (121,000 hectares) and destroyed two homes in the Texas Panhandle and was 50 percent contained, authorities said.

Wildfires in northwestern Oklahoma prompted evacuations of multiple towns, according to state officials, who said more than 10,000 acres (4,000 hectares) have burned.

At least 10,000 residents in central Kansas were asked to evacuate their homes due to a wildfire in Reno County, where about 230 responders were on the scene, the county’s emergency management agency said.

More than 650,000 acres (263,000 hectares) also have burned in Kansas, according to the state’s emergency management agency.

Firefighters battling a 30,000-acre (12,000-hectare) grassland fire in northeastern Colorado extended containment lines to 80 percent of the blaze’s perimeter on Tuesday. Five homes were lost in the flames, a spokeswoman for Phillips County official said.

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Colorado wildfire burns 30,000 acres, destroys homes

Fires in Colorado and Texas.

By Keith Coffman

DENVER (Reuters) – A wind-driven wildfire erupted on the eastern plains of Colorado on Monday, scorching 30,000 acres of grassland, prompting the temporary evacuation of a small farming town and destroying at least three homes, emergency officials said.

The fire erupted around midday east of the town of Sterling and quickly grew out of control as gale-force winds fanned the flames, said Marilee Johnson, spokeswoman for the Logan County Office of Emergency Management.

Mandatory evacuations were lifted for the town of Haxtun late in the afternoon but some 900 homes remain threatened and those residents have been warned to prepare to flee should shifting winds drive flames their way, she said.

The 30,000-acre fire was 50 percent contained, the Logan County Office of Emergency Management said in a statement.

No injuries have been reported but three homes and a fourth structure were burned to the ground. The cause of the fire was unknown.

Footage from a Denver television station showed rows of hay bales in the agricultural area consumed by flames. More than 70 firefighters from 13 agencies were battling the blaze, emergency managers said.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment issued an air quality alert due to smoke and dust kicked up by the winds, warning residents to stay indoors.

“This is especially true for those with heart disease, respiratory illnesses, the very young and the elderly,” the health department said in a statement.

Interstate 76 was temporarily closed due to smoke and blowing dust but some county roads remained closed by nightfall, the state emergency operations center said.

Schools in the towns of Caliche, Haxtun and Fleming were evacuated as winds whipped up the grass fire in the afternoon, the state office of emergency management said in a statement posted on its website.

The National Weather Service issued high wind warnings or advisories for much of Colorado as a cold front blew across the state on Monday, with blowing snow making for hazardous driving conditions in the Colorado mountains.

“Expect an additional 3 to 5 inches of snow combined with west winds of 35 to 50 mph and gusts to 70 mph,” the weather service said in a statement.

High winds also buffeted the Denver metropolitan area, causing power outages to nearly 600 businesses and residences for a time on Monday, the utility company said on its online outage report.

(Editing by Nick Macfie)

Chile battles devastating wildfires as international help pours in

By Anthony Esposito

SANTIAGO (Reuters) – The worst wildfires in Chile’s modern history are ravaging wide swaths of the country’s central-south regions, as a massive Boeing 747-400 Super Tanker arrived on Wednesday on loan from the United States to help extinguish the blazes.

“We have never seen something of this size, never in Chile’s history. And the truth is the (firefighting) forces are doing everything that is humanly possible and will continue to do so until the fires are contained and controlled,” President Michelle Bachelet said, as she visited the hard-hit Maule region.

Forest fires are a regular feature of Chile’s hot, arid summers, but a nearly decade-long drought combined with historically high temperatures have created tinder-dry conditions.

International help from France, the United States, Peru and Mexico has been pouring into Chile as the fires swept through forested hills and into neighboring towns, scorching homes, industry and the region’s world-renowned vineyards. The country last week declared a state of emergency.

As of Wednesday, 85 separate fires had been recorded, covering some 190,000 hectares (469,500 acres) – more than twice the area of New York City.

Chile’s Conaf forestry service said that 35 of the fires were still out of control.

At least some of the fires may have been started intentionally and there had been a number of arrests in relation to ongoing investigations, said Bachelet.

Three firefighters were killed on Jan. 15 and another three gravely injured. Local media reported on Wednesday that another firefighter had died.

Some Chileans, such as Susana Molina, 82, a boutique wine producer, have seen their livelihoods destroyed.

“All my fields burned, there were four hectares that I had and it all burned,” she said, from Cauquenes in the Maule region. Around 100 small vineyards in Cauquenes alone had been damaged so far, said the local industry association.

The forestry industry has also been impacted, with smaller outfits the most vulnerable.

Chile’s forest products industry, the country’s second biggest by exports after copper mining, is led by Empresas Copec subsidiary Arauco, Empresas CMPC, and Masisa.

Chile, along the seismically-active Pacific Rim, is no stranger to natural disasters. It is often walloped by earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and strong storms.

As a result, its emergency response teams, building codes and residents are usually well-prepared to confront such situations. But the scale of this season’s fires have overwhelmed authorities.

(Reporting by Anthony Esposito, additional reporting by Reuters TV; editing by Rosalba O’Brien, G Crosse)

Wildfires threaten Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, evacuations ordered

Smoke plumes from wildfires are shown in the Great Smokey Mountains near Gatlinburg, Tennessee, U.S., November 28, 2016.

By Kami Klein

For the past couple of weeks, wildfires have spread throughout the southeast areas of the country. Georgia, North Carolina, and now Tennessee have been hit the hardest, besieged by the worst possible weather and drought conditions for battling the spreading flames.  Wind gusts were reaching 75 mph, creating new fires wherever embers were blown.  

The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency said in a news release that the flames are headed into Gatlinburg, where much damage has already been reported. Authorities issued a Level 3 state emergency and ordered evacuations of Gatlinburg, Mynatt Park, Park Vista, Ski Mounty and Pigeon Forge on Monday.

Fires in Gatlinburg, Monday night, November 28th, 2016

Fires in Gatlinburg, Monday night, November 28th, 2016

According to the Washington Post, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) estimated that more than 14,000 visitors and residents were evacuated from Gatlinburg, with thousands more being forced to flee Pigeon Forge and other towns and villages in the area. Four injuries have been reported with burns, requiring one patient to be hospitalized.

On Monday afternoon, a wildfire from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park spread swiftly when strong wind gusts scattered embers across long distances, starting fires that fed off drought-stricken trees. The winds also knocked down power lines, igniting new fires, according to authorities.

“Everything was like a perfect storm,” said Cassius Cash, superintendent of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, to CNN affiliate WATE.

According to Reuters, the fire exploded from 10 acres Sunday night into a 500-acre blaze Monday night. 

Motorists stop to view wildfires in the Great Smokey Mountains near Gatlinburg, Tennessee, U.S., November 28, 2016. Photo taken November 28, 2016. Courtesy of National Park Services Staff/Handout via REUTERS

Motorists stop to view wildfires in the Great Smokey Mountains near Gatlinburg, Tennessee, U.S., November 28, 2016. Photo taken November 28, 2016. Courtesy of National Park Services Staff/Handout via REUTERS

“We urge the public to pray. We urge the public to stay off the highways. The traffic that is on the roads is emergency equipment. If (the public) could just stay home and stay tuned to their local media outlet,” Gatlinburg Fire Chief Greg Miller said at a Monday night press conference.

Rain showers have begun in the area and state officials are hoping the rainfall amounts will be enough to help curb wildfires that continue to break out due to blowing embers.  

“Unfortunately, some wind gusts will accompany this rain,” noted the National Weather Service.

High winds are possible across eastern Tennessee, southwest Virginia and southwest North Carolina and the Weather Service has warned that these conditions could topple trees and power lines and fan the flames, making it extremely dangerous for firefighters.

Israel arrests 13 on suspicion of arson over mass wildfires

Firefighters work as a wildfire burns in the village of Beit Meir near Jerusalem

By Maayan Lubell

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli police arrested 13 people on Friday on suspicion of arson, authorities said, after massive wildfires tore through central and northern Israel, a conflagration that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu branded as “terrorism”.

Firefighters kept battling the flames in wooded hills around Jerusalem and in northern areas on Friday, with support from Palestinian firemen and emergency teams from Greece, Cyprus, Croatia, Italy, Russia and Turkey.

Netanyahu said he had also accepted offers of help from Egypt and Jordan.

Unseasonably dry weather and easterly winds helped kindle the fires, which erupted on Tuesday and now stretch across half the country.

Arson appeared to be behind some of the blazes, Netanyahu said. “A price will be paid for this arson-terrorism,” he told reporters on Friday. He said the arson was carried out by “elements with great hostility toward Israel.”

A resident stands next to burnt cars from Thursday's fire in the northern city of Haifa, Israel

A resident stands next to burnt cars from Thursday’s fire in the northern city of Haifa, Israel November 25, 2016. REUTERS/Baz Ratner

“We cannot tell yet if this is organized, but we can see a number of cells operating,” Netanyahu said.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said a dozen people had been detained either while attempting to set fires or fleeing the area, but he provided no further details. Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan told reporters 13 people were arrested.

Erdan said those arrested were “minorities”, an allusion to either Arab Israeli citizens or Palestinians. “The highest likelihood is that the motive is nationalistic,” Erdan told Army Radio. Police, however, stopped short of declaring any motive.

The fires are the biggest in the country since 2010, when 44 people were killed in a killed in a massive blaze in the north. Investigators concluded that fire was caused by negligence.

ACCUSATIONS

Education Minister Naftali Bennett, leader of a far-right party, said on Thursday the fires could not have been started by Jews and on Friday blamed them on “nationalist terrorists”, a reference in Israel to Palestinians.

“There is no coincidental ‘wave of fires’,” he wrote on Twitter. “There is a nationalist terrorist wave by fire terrorists meant to murder civilians and cause fright.”

A living room burnt in Thursday's fire is pictured in the northern city of Haifa, Israel

A living room burnt in Thursday’s fire is pictured in the northern city of Haifa, Israel, November 25, 2016. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

There has been no official response from Palestinian leaders. But Ayman Odeh, a leading Israeli Arab politician from Haifa, rejected the suggestion Arabs were responsible for arson attacks and accused the Israeli government of taking advantage of the situation to incite against the Arab minority.

Nearly a third of the residents of Haifa, a coastal city of around 250,000 people, including a large Arab population, spent the night in shelters and nearby towns and villages after being ordered to leave on Thursday in the face of walls of flame.

Smoke billowed over the city on Friday morning as firefighters worked to douse the remaining fires. City officials said the situation was under control but that at least 700 homes had been badly damaged or destroyed.

About 80,000 evacuees from Haifa were allowed to return to their homes on Friday as firefighters curbed the flames.

Israel’s chief of police said on Thursday people may have decided to start fires after seeing the trouble they were causing. “We’re in an area where if someone sees on the news there is an opportunity, he can take advantage of the opportunity,” said Roni Alsheich.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said forces had arrested a Palestinian man caught trying to set a fire near the Israeli settlement of Kochav Yaakov in the occupied West Bank. Footage aired on Israeli television showed three people setting a fire in an open area near the West Bank settlement of Ariel.

Police said one man from the Bedouin village of Rahat in southern Israel had been arrested for incitement after he posted a message on his Facebook page calling on others to start fires.

Palestinians seek an independent state in territories including the West Bank that Israel took in a 1967 war. The last round of peace talks collapsed in 2014.

(Reporting by Maayan Lubell; editing by Luke Baker and Mark Heinrich)

Southern California firefighters make progress; 100 homes destroyed

Firefighters hose down a burnt structure at the so-called Blue Cut Fire in San Bernardino County, California

By Alex Dobuzinskis

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Firefighters were gaining ground on Friday against a wildfire burning in a Southern California mountain pass that has forced tens of thousands of residents to flee their homes and destroyed about 100 houses, officials said.

The Blue Cut fire, named for a narrow gorge near its origin in the Cajon Pass about 75 miles (120 km) northeast of Los Angeles, has blackened 37,000 acres (14,973 hectares) of drought-parched heavy brush and chaparral after breaking out on Tuesday.

The blaze has destroyed 96 single-family homes and 213 outbuildings, according to a preliminary assessment from teams in the field, fire information officer Lyn Sieliet said by telephone. Officials previously said dozens of structures were gutted, without providing exact figures.

Officials said firefighters were able to carve containment lines around 26 percent of the blaze as of Friday morning – up from 4 percent a day earlier – in dry, hot and windy weather conditions and treacherous terrain.

The intensely burning blaze, which has produced cyclone-like whirls of flame, continued to threaten some 34,500 homes and other structures in communities including the ski resort town of Wrightwood, fire officials said.

More than 80,000 residents were told to evacuate their homes on Tuesday. Since then, some people have been allowed to return home, Sieliet said, but she could not say how many.

While many residents opted to stay put, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office said deputies arrested three people suspected of attempting to loot from the abandoned homes of evacuees.

Transit authorities on Thursday reopened Interstate 15, the primary traffic route between greater Los Angeles and Las Vegas, Nevada, after it was closed for two days by the fast-moving blaze.

The Blue Cut fire is one of nearly 30 major blazes reported to have scorched some hundreds of square miles in eight Western states this week, in the midst of a wildfire season stoked by prolonged drought and unusually hot weather, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

(Additional reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; editing by Janet Lawrence and Cynthia Osterman)