Latest Wildfire Headlines
All the headlines from our Wildfire Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Wildfire Prompted Evacuations from Idaho Nuclear Energy Lab
Jul 24 2019 // Some employees were evacuated from the Idaho National Laboratory in southeastern Idaho while crews fight a wildfire burning near the nuclear energy research site. INL officials say non-essential employees were evacuated...
Clearing Large Swaths of Land Part of Plan to Slow Western Wildfires
Jul 23 2019 // The Trump administration is proposing an ambitious plan to slow Western wildfires by bulldozing, mowing or revegetating large swaths of land along 11,000 miles of terrain in the West. The plan announced this summer would...
Europe Faces Heatwave with London and Paris Expected to Break July Records
Jul 23 2019 // Europe is facing a second heatwave this summer, just weeks after the hottest June on record, intensifying concern over climate change and the rise in extreme weather events. Swathes of northwest Europe will struggle to...
Town Leveled by California Wildfire Reopens Its Public Pool
Jul 22 2019 // The public swimming pool in Paradise, California, is reopening for the first time since a catastrophic wildfire destroyed much of the town. CBS13 in Sacramento reports state firefighters used their hoses last week to...
Utility Customers Sue Over California Wildfire Law
Jul 22 2019 // Two Pacific Gas & Electric customers want the federal judge overseeing the company’s bankruptcy to strike down a new California law that Gov. Gavin Newsom has championed as a way of shoring up the state’s...
California Safety Board Oks Regulation to Protect Workers from Wildfire Smoke
Jul 19 2019 // The California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board has adopted an emergency regulation designed to protect workers from hazards associated with wildfire smoke. The regulation is expected to go into effect in...
Report: California Wildfires Will Get Worse, Blame Climate Change
Jul 18 2019 // Hot, dry weather in California has resulted in a dramatic increase in wildfires. It will get worse – and you can blame climate change, according to a new report out. The report, Observed impacts of anthropogenic climate...
California Legislators Approve $21 Billion Liability Fund for Utilities
Jul 12 2019 // California lawmakers approved legislation on Thursday to create a $21 billion fund to help utilities in the state pay for claims arising from future wildfires sparked by their equipment, tackling a top issue for the...
PG&E Pushes for Tax-Exempt Bond Bill for Fire Claims
Jul 12 2019 // PG&E Corp. is lobbying California legislators to allow it to issue tax-exempt bonds to help pay for past and future wildfire claims, according to people familiar with the matter. The bankrupt utility is pushing...
Judge Wants PG&E to Respond to Report It Knew Faulty Lines Could Cause Wildfires
Jul 10 2019 // PG&E Corp. was ordered by a federal judge overseeing its probation to respond to a Wall Street Journal story claiming the utility knew its power lines could cause wildfires and failed to perform upgrades. PG&E...
California Wildfire ‘Bailout’ for PG&E, Edison Clears Hurdle
Jul 10 2019 // Utility giants PG&E Corp. and Edison International are one step closer to getting California’s help in covering the costs of increasingly catastrophic wildfires that their equipment keeps igniting. The state...
Wildfire Help for PG&E, Edison May Not Be Ready When California Lawmakers Adjourn July 12
Jul 8 2019 // California’s biggest utilities, PG&E Corp., Edison International and Sempra Energy, may not get the help they need to deal with multi-billion dollar wildfire liabilities before lawmakers adjourn July 12 for...
Officials Say 4 Wildfires in North-Central Nevada Were All Human Caused
Jul 3 2019 // The U.S. Bureau of Land Management says four separate wildfires that broke out in north-central Nevada this week all were caused by humans. The fires that began on Tuesday near Interstate 80 between Lovelock and Winnemucca...
Hot Weather May Fuel South-Central Alaska Wildfire, Some Residents Evacuate
Jul 2 2019 // Meteorologists say a new wave of hot, dry weather is expected to fuel a wildfire burning on the Kenai Peninsula, and continued smoke and record-breaking temperatures are predicted for the Fourth of July holiday week across...
Proposed California Wildfire Board Could Operate Partly in Secret
Jul 1 2019 // A closely watched wildfire law proposed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom would exempt a new safety board from some of the state’s government transparency laws. The Wildfire Safety Advisory Board would advise the...
PG&E in California Wants to Securitize Some Profits to Cover Wildfire Costs
Jul 1 2019 // PG&E Corp. is lobbying for legislation that would allow the bankrupt California utility giant to securitize some of its profits to pay for past wildfire liabilities, people familiar with the matter said. PG&E was...
PG&E Power Line Blamed for Sparking Small California Wildfire
Jun 28 2019 // A downed Pacific Gas & Electric power line is blamed for sparking a wildfire in eastern Monterey County, Calif. this week. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection says the 2,456-acre blaze that...
Poll: Majority of Americans Say Global Warming is Affecting U.S. Weather
Jun 27 2019 // The majority of Americans say global warming is important to them, and that it’s affecting the weather in the U.S. A national survey by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason University...
Sweltering Heatwave in Germany Sparks Wildfires, Forces Speed Cut on Autobahn
Jun 27 2019 // A blistering heatwave prompted Germany to impose speed restrictions on usually limit-free stretches of its high-speed motorways Wednesday, the latest sign of extreme weather events ruffling Europe’s largest...
Jump in Western U.S. Wildfires Means Smoke’s Health Impact Will Spread
Jun 26 2019 // Climate change in the Western U.S. means more intense and frequent wildfires churning out waves of smoke that scientists say will affect tens of millions of people and cause premature deaths to spike. That’s...
