Latest Wildfire Headlines
All the headlines from our Wildfire Topic Page, ordered by recency.
S.D. Firefighter Landowner Suspects Arson as Large Wildfire Cause
Apr 26 2021 // A former wildland firefighter who owns the land where a burn pile ignited a large wildfire near Rapid City says he believe the blaze was intentionally set. In a 60-page report, the landowner told investigators he was...
Coalition is Letting Californians Know May is Wildfire Awareness Month
Apr 22 2021 // Now is the time for Californians to prepare homes and communities for the coming wildfire season, the StrongerCA Coalition is warning. Last year saw a record-breaking wildfire season, with five of the 10 largest wildfires...
Cape Town Wildfire Largely Contained; Damage Assessment Begins
Apr 21 2021 // CAPE TOWN, South Africa – Fire crews had largely contained a big wildfire on the slopes of Cape Town’s Table Mountain on Tuesday as the city started to come to terms with the damage caused by what officials...
Wildfire on Cape Town’s Table Mountain Rages Out of Control
Apr 19 2021 // More than 250 firefighters in Cape Town battled a massive blaze that broke out on the slopes of the city’s Table Mountain on Sunday and spread to a university campus, severely damaging at least three buildings and...
California Toughens PG&E Wildfire Safety Oversight
Apr 16 2021 // California officials on Thursday voted to toughen oversight of Pacific Gas & Electric, saying the utility had largely failed to perform required tree-trimming work near power lines in areas with the highest risk of...
California Targets Urgent Projects as Wildfire Season Looms
Apr 15 2021 // California is in such an urgent race with another devastating wildfire season that officials began soliciting local project ideas even before they had money to pay for them. It faces such a threat of drought that the...
California Fire Victim Trust Has Received 250K Claims So Far
Apr 14 2021 // The Fire Victim Trust, established to pay California wildfire victims on July 1, 2020, has received 40,000 claims questionnaires representing more than 70,000 claimants and roughly 250,000 individual claims, according to...
California Plans $536M for Wildfire Mitigation Before Fire Season
Apr 14 2021 // California will authorize $536 million for wildfire mitigation and forest management projects before the worst of the fire season strikes later this year, Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders said. That more than...
California’s PG&E Sees Criminal Charges in 2019 Wildfire
Apr 8 2021 // A California prosecutor has filed 33 criminal charges accusing troubled Pacific Gas & Electric of inadvertently injuring six firefighters and endangering public health with smoke and ash in a 2019 fire blamed on its...
Three Dozen California Bills Focus on Wildfire, Others Are Concerning for Insurance Industry
Apr 6 2021 // Roughly three dozen pieces of California legislation are directly related to wildfire, and while those bills should hold much interest for the insurance community, there are other bills making their rounds that should draw...
‘Not Over Yet,’ But Crews Gaining Control of South Dakota Wildfires
Mar 31 2021 // Firefighters have begun to gain control of wildfires in the Black Hills of South Dakota that have forced the evacuation of more than 400 homes and closed the Mount Rushmore National Memorial. Three separate wildfires were...
Lawmakers from California Want U.S. Departments to Be Year-Round Wildfire Agencies
Mar 31 2021 // California’s U.S. senators and nearly two-dozen representatives are asking the Agriculture and Interior departments to transition their agencies to a year-round wildland workforce because blazes are no longer limited...
South Dakota Wildfires: 400 Homes Evacuated; Mount Rushmore Closed
Mar 30 2021 // Three separate wildfires in the Black Hills of South Dakota have forced evacuations of more than 400 homes northwest of Rapid City and shut down Mount Rushmore, authorities said. A fire that started near Schroeder Road in...
California Wildfire Sparked When Tree Hit Power Line, Report Shows
Mar 24 2021 // A Northern California wildfire that killed four people and destroyed more than 200 buildings last year was sparked when tree branches came into contact with Pacific Gas & Electric power lines, officials said in a...
Texas Forest Service: Southern Plains Wildfire Outbreak Possible this Spring
Mar 23 2021 // Texas A&M Forest Service and the National Weather Service have identified an extremely dangerous fire weather phenomena known as a Southern Plains Wildfire Outbreak, or SPWO, and are watching for it to occur in...
California County Adding Artificial Intelligence for Wildfires
Mar 23 2021 // Sonoma County officials say they will add artificial intelligence technology to help fight wildfires with a 24-7 monitor to track fire outbreaks. The technology will be added to the county’s network of wildfire...
Wisconsin Issues Wildfire Warning After 30-Plus Weekend Blazes
Mar 22 2021 // Wisconsin authorities are warning residents about weather conditions after more than 30 wildfires were reported throughout the state on March 20. Much of the state is under a burn ban due to forecasts of low relative...
Oregon Lawsuits Seek $1B from Pacific Power over Wildfires
Mar 22 2021 // Two new lawsuits filed in Marion County, Ore., seek more than $1 billion in damages from Pacific Power, claiming the utility’s negligence led to wildfires in the Santiam Canyon last year. The two lawsuits filed in...
California Attorney General Challenges Housing Plans in Wildfire Areas
Mar 19 2021 // California’s attorney general is challenging some of the state’s largest suburban development projects as local officials weigh the risk of increasingly devastating wildfires against the state’s dire need...
Bill to Create Fund to Battle Washington Wildfires Moving Through Legislature
Mar 17 2021 // A bill to create a dedicated fund to prevent and fight wildfires in Washington easily passed the state House of Representatives and will be sent to the state Senate. The bill, promoted by Commissioner of Public Lands...
