Latest Wildfire Headlines
All the headlines from our Wildfire Topic Page, ordered by recency.
U.S. Considers Night Flying to Fight Fires
Dec 2 2009 // The U.S. Forest Service is considering allowing its helicopters to attack wildfires at night, a practice the agency has long discouraged because of risks to pilots, a senior official said Monday. The change would be a...
New Mexico Wildfire Danger is High
Dec 1 2009 // State Forester Butch Blazer is cautioning New Mexicans about fire danger in parts of the state because of mild conditions and less-than-abundant moisture. Fine grassy fuels and brush in southern and southeastern New Mexico...
Suspect in 2003 California Wildfire Recants Confession
Nov 30 2009 // A convicted burglar has claimed in jailhouse interviews that he was badgered into confessing to starting a 2003 wildfire that burned about 1,000 homes in the foothills above San Bernardino and allegedly caused five people...
California Commissioner Touts Wildfire Payment Recoveries
Nov 16 2009 // On the eve of the one-year anniversary of the Sayre, Tea and Freeway Fires in Southern California, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner announced in a press statement Friday that the California Department of Insurance...
California Recovers $27 Million for San Diegans
Nov 10 2009 // California’s Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner yesterday announced that the Department of Insurance (CDI) has recovered more than $27 million from insurance companies in the aftermath of the devastating Witch...
San Diego Power Company Pays Wildfire Restitution
Nov 2 2009 // San Diego Gas & Electric and Cox Communications have agreed to pay $17 million to settle claims by state investigators that poor maintenance led to three huge wildfires in 2007. The settlement, announced Friday, comes...
Arsonist Faces Murder Charge for Heart Attacks Linked to 2003 California Wildfire
Nov 1 2009 // Case Shows New Determination to Charge Alleged Arsonists with Murder for Firefighter and Civilian Deaths Retired accountant James McDermith’s mad dash to retrieve a camper and pack it with belongings as a wildfire...
South Carolina Court Hears Wildfire Case This Week
Oct 27 2009 // A man fined in the most destructive wildfire in South Carolina history is facing a court date to answer to charges. Court documents show the trial for Marc Torchi is set for Wednesday in Central Jury Court in Conway, a...
California Fire Near Santa Cruz Controlled
Oct 27 2009 // Residents in the Santa Cruz mountains have been allowed to return to their homes after being evacuated Sunday in the face of a forest fire driven by high winds. The fire in the Summit area north of Santa Cruz burned 485...
Arson Case Prompts Heart-Attack Murder Charges
Oct 26 2009 // Prosecutors in California are charging a suspected arsonist with the murder of five people who died of heart attacks during a wildfire _ a potential capital offense in a region held hostage by fires. Six men died of a...
Murder Arrest in 2003 California Wildfire
Oct 22 2009 // Almost six years after a wildfire destroyed nearly 1,000 homes in Southern California, prosecutors say they have enough evidence to charge a prison inmate with arson and murder in connection with the 2003 blaze. San...
Homeless Man Detained in California wildfire Probe
Oct 21 2009 // A homeless man was arrested and charged with arson for starting a tiny blaze in August near the spot where a gigantic wildfire erupted several days later, killing two firefighters, homicide detectives said...
Declarations
Oct 19 2009 // Wildfire Lessons “I’ll be very honest about it – we haven’t come up with anything different we could do.” —Fire Chief Garry Alderman, who heads the fire and rescue agency for wildfire-prone...
California Jury Orders First-Ever Wildfire Environmental Damages
Oct 19 2009 // A Los Angeles jury recently ordered two construction companies to reimburse the government for $36.5 million in damages from a 2002 wildfire, in the largest such award and the first-ever damages for environmental harm,...
California Wildfires Raise Landslide Risk
Oct 19 2009 // Rainstorms could send huge flows of water laden with mud, rocks and other debris toward cities below steep slopes of the San Gabriel Mountains stripped bare by a wildfire near Los Angeles this summer, according to federal...
Detectives Seek Transient in California Fire Investigation
Oct 14 2009 // Homicide detectives investigating a deadly wildfire that ravaged much of Angeles National Forest said they are looking for a transient suspected of starting a smaller fire several miles away. Babatunsin Olukunle, 25, has...
California Wildfires Raise Landslide Risk
Oct 8 2009 // Rainstorms could send huge flows of water laden with mud, rocks and other debris toward cities below steep slopes of the San Gabriel Mountains stripped bare by a wildfire near Los Angeles this summer, federal scientists...
Cooler Temperatures Aid California Fire Crews
Oct 6 2009 // Cooling temperatures and higher humidity on Monday gave firefighters some welcome relief as they waged an ongoing assault against a wildfire that had burned to the edges of a popular resort town in the San Gabriel...
South Carolina Still Looking for Lessons from Myrtle Beach Wildfire
Oct 5 2009 // The fire chief in one of South Carolina’s busiest tourist spots said he won’t alter his agency’s practices even though his crews failed to extinguish a small blaze that mushroomed into the worst wildfire...
California Fires Renew Push for National Arson Registry
Oct 5 2009 // The deadly fire at Angeles National Forest is renewing a push from California lawmakers for a national registry of convicted arsonists. Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein have filed legislation that would...
