Latest news with #Firewise
Yahoo
04-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Neighbors in Morrison work along firefighters for National Wildfire Preparedness Day
MORRISON, Colo. (KDVR) — On Saturday afternoon, neighbors from four different neighborhoods in Morrison met at KingFisher Lake Park to receive their new Firewise signs. The four neighborhoods that are recognized within the Willow Springs community are Whale Rock, Sundance, Willow Springs North and Triangle Park. 'The effort to become Firewise took on new urgency after the Marshall Fire in 2021 in Boulder County, and two fires closer to home- the Snow Creek Fire in July 2022 and the Quarry Fire in 2024,' stated Ronda Scholting, the Public Information Officer with West Metro Fire. Those areas were recognized as Firewise USA sites by the National Fire Protection Association. What that means for the neighbors in the area is that they have worked hard and been proactive in reducing wildfire risk. Denver's best Mexican restaurants to try for Cinco De Mayo, according to Yelp The other thing neighbors are being recognized for is their strength in the community, coming together to make sure the neighborhood is as prepped as possible to reduce wildfire risk and protecting the homes in the area. 'Concerned about the risk of fire in the wildland/urban interface, many residents came together to take action, leading to the creation of local Firewise committees and a focus on community-wide wildfire preparedness,' Scholting said. Those signs will be posted in the areas. Firefighters with West Metro Fire will also be at the presentation of the signs. Wildfire season is all year long here in Colorado. Many counties across the state issue Red Flag Warning Days, so it's important to follow the area you live in. Here is more information about Red Flag Warning Days in Jefferson County. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Alaska House urges local and state agencies to prepare for a bad wildfire season
Rep. Ky Holland, I-Anchorage, speaks to the Alaska House of Representatives on Friday, April 25, 2025. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon) Alaska's wildfire season is shaping up to be especially dangerous this year, and the Alaska House of Representatives is asking local, state and federal officials to prepare ahead of time. On April 25, the House voted 37-0 to approve a resolution calling for readiness. House Joint Resolution 15, by Rep. Ky Holland, I-Anchorage, is slated for a hearing on Friday in the Senate Resources Committee. 'House Joint Resolution 15 came about from an early awareness this winter about the very dry conditions that we were witnessing in Southcentral Alaska,' said Holland, speaking to the House. 'A really key part of this resolution is a recognition of how important it is that we do the outreach and we encourage the preparation by residents to be able to be more aware of what they can do to protect their own homes through the Firewise program,' he said. He added that it's particularly important for Alaskans to be aware that many of the state's residential areas have a single way in and out. 'That single route is all that's going to be available for both our fire response apparatus to get in, as well as for anyone who's trying to evacuate to get out,' he said. 'And we only have to look back at some very tragic, large fires we've seen in the last five years that have been exacerbated by these problems of the limited ingress and egress routes to realize how important it is for us to assess those areas.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Fire season starts before Iditarod ends
This area along the perimeter of the 2024 Riley Fire in Denali National Park and Preserve. The 2025 wildfire season is off to an early start in Alaska's coastal region. (Bureau of Land Management photo) The record-low snow conditions south of the Alaska Range have had big impacts across the state, especially around wildfire potential. In early March, the Iditarod had to move the race to the northern route, while the Alaska Division of Forestry & Fire Protection, or DOF, declared an early wildland fire season in its Coastal Region, requiring burn permits starting March 17 instead of the usual April 1. This region includes Southeast, Southcentral and Southwest Alaska. Find a map of the area here. Even before the DOF order took effect or Jessie Holmes's dog team crossed the finish line in Nome, two fires had already spread in the snow-free grasses of the Kenai Peninsula and Mat-Su Valley, confirming the early fire danger in Alaska's most populous areas. The risk of human-caused fires has become evident, with at least 17 requiring a response as of April 4. Most were the result of negligent burning, emphasizing the critical importance of ensuring that burn piles are monitored, keeping fire tools on hand, and never leaving a fire unattended. While local, state, and federal fire managers prepare for an already active fire season, it is critical that Alaskans exercise caution with anything that could ignite a fire. We encourage homeowners to reduce wildfire hazards around your home by following Firewise principals. Burning yard waste in a pile or barrel is a common spring chore for many homeowners, and in these extreme conditions, it is important to follow safe burning practices as outlined on the DOF Learn Before You Burn website and on burn permits. Unsafe burning is a major contributor to wildfires, especially this time of year because dry, dead vegetation is exposed to the sun, creating a landscape primed for ignition that could quickly spread and endanger lives and property. For an even safer option, consider disposing of yard waste at designated woody debris disposal sites operated by local municipalities, boroughs or state DOF offices. You can find a web app showing the disposal sites in Alaska here. As we head into spring, Alaskans should take extra precautions: Be mindful when recreating on dry, exposed vegetation — one spark from an ATV, snowmachine, or chainsaw can start a fire. Follow all burn permit requirements and restrictions. Do not burn on a windy day. If conditions continue to deteriorate, burn suspensions or closures may be necessary to protect lives and property. If you see smoke or fire, report it immediately by calling 911 or 1-800-237-3633. Early detection can mean the difference between a small fire and a large-scale emergency. Stay informed through information from your local government fire departments, emergency services, and wildland fire agencies through social media and online sources such as the Alaska Wildland Fire Information — — or the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center website. Years like this one, where the snow melts early, are more likely to result in above-average fire seasons, according to new research from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. While early snow-off does not guarantee a big season, Alaska's spring snowmelt now occurs nearly two weeks earlier than it did in the 1990s, contributing to long-term wildfire trends. Both tundra and boreal forest regions are experiencing larger, more frequent fires, with statewide impacts. The new Alaska's Changing Wildfire Environment report summarizes what is known about how wildland fire in Alaska is changing. The report was compiled by the UAF Alaska Fire Science Consortium, with contributions from the Alaska wildfire management community. By staying informed and taking precautions now, Alaskans can help reduce the risk of dangerous wildfires. Just as mushers adapt to unpredictable trail conditions, we must also adjust to Alaska's changing fire landscape. The same lack of snow that forced the Iditarod north is fueling early fire activity in the south. While the Iditarod's route may shift year to year, our responsibility to prevent wildfires remains constant. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Los Angeles Times
25-03-2025
- General
- Los Angeles Times
After Lahaina fire, Hawaii residents focus on becoming ‘Firewise'
KULA, Hawaii — The car tires, propane tanks, gas generators and rusty appliances heaped on the side of a dirt road waiting to be hauled away filled Desiree Graham with relief. 'That means all that stuff is not in people's yards,' she said on a blustery July day in Kahikinui, a remote Native Hawaiian homestead community in southeast Maui where wildfire is a top concern. In June, neighbors and volunteers spent four weekends clearing rubbish from their properties in a community-wide effort to create 'defensible space,' or areas around homes free of ignitable vegetation and debris. They purged 12 tons of waste. 'It's ugly, but it's pretty beautiful to me,' said Graham, a member of Kahikinui's Firewise committee, part of a rapidly growing program from the nonprofit National Fire Protection Assn. that helps residents assess their communities' fire risk and create plans to mitigate it. Kahikinui is one of dozens of Hawaii communities seeking ways to protect themselves as decades of climate change, urban development, and detrimental land use policies culminate to cause more destructive fires. The state has 250,000 acres of unmanaged fallow agricultural land, nearly all of its buildings sit within the wildland-urban interface, and two-thirds of communities have only one road in and out. But experts say that even with so many factors out of communities' control, they can vastly improve their resilience — by transforming their own neighborhoods. 'Fire is not like other natural hazards, it can only move where there is fuel, and we have a lot of say in that,' said Nani Barretto, co-executive director of the Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization, a 25-year-old nonprofit at the forefront of the state's fire-risk mitigation. Neighborhoods all over the United States are wrestling with the same challenge, some in places that never worried about fire before. A recent Headwaters Economics analysis found that 1,100 communities in 32 states shared similar risk profiles to places recently devastated by urban wildfires. The Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization helps communities like Kahikinui become members of Firewise. In the 10 years preceding the August 2023 Maui fires that destroyed Lahaina, 15 Hawaii communities joined Firewise USA. Since then, the number has more than doubled to 31, with a dozen more in the process of joining. 'Everyone was like, 'My God, what can we do?' ' said Shelly Aina, former chair of the Firewise committee for Waikoloa Village, an 8,000-resident community on the west side of the Big Island, recalling the months after the Maui fires. The development — heavily wind exposed, surrounded by dry invasive grasses and with just one main road in and out — had already experienced several close calls in the last two decades. It was first recognized as Firewise in 2016. As Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization-trained home assessors, Shelly and her husband, Dana Aina, have done over 60 free assessments for neighbors since 2022, evaluating their properties for ignition vulnerabilities. Volunteers removed kiawe trees last year along a fuel break bordering houses. Residents approved an extra HOA fee for vegetation removal on interior lots. Measures like these can have outsized impact as people in fire-prone states adapt to more extreme wildfires, according to Dr. Jack Cohen, a retired U.S. Forest Service scientist. 'The solution is in the community, not out there with the fire breaks, because those don't stop the fire in extreme conditions,' said Cohen. Direct flames from a wildfire aren't what typically initiate an urban conflagration, he said. Wind-blown embers can travel miles away from a fire, landing on combustible material like dry vegetation, or accumulating in corners like where a deck meets siding. 'They're urban fires, not wildfires,' said Cohen. The solutions don't always require expensive retrofits like a whole new roof, but targeting the specific places within 100 feet of the house where embers could ignite material. In dense neighborhoods, that requires residents work together, making community-wide efforts like Firewise important. 'The house is only as ignition resistant as its neighbors,' said Cohen. Even with renewed interest in fire resilience, community leaders face challenges in mobilizing their neighbors. Mitigation can take money, time and sacrifice. It's not enough to cut the grass once, for example, vegetation has to be regularly maintained. Complacency sets in. Measures like removing hazardous trees can cost thousands of dollars. 'I don't know how we deal with that, because those who have them can't afford to take them down,' said Shelly Aina. The Ainas try offering low-cost measures, like installing metal screening behind vents and crawl spaces to keep out embers. The Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization helps with costs where it can. It gave Kahikinui a $5,000 grant for a dumpster service to haul out its waste, and helped Waikoloa Village rent a chipper for the trees it removed. It's been hard to keep up with the need, said Barretto, but even just a little bit of financial assistance can have an exponential impact. 'You give them money, they rally,' she said. 'We can give them $1,000 and it turns into 1,000 man hours of doing the clearing.' HWMO was able to expand its grant program after the Maui fires with donations from organizations like the Bezos Earth Fund and the American Red Cross. At a time when federal funding for climate mitigation is uncertain, communities need far more financial support to transform their neighborhoods, said Headwaters Economics' Kimi Barrett, who studies the costs of increasing fire risk. 'If what we're trying to do is save people and communities, then we must significantly invest in people and communities,' said Barrett. Those investments are just a fraction of the billions of dollars in losses sustained after megafires, said Barrett. A recent study by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Allstate found that $1 in resilience and preparation investment can save $13 in economic and property losses after a disaster. Another hurdle is asking residents to do work and make sacrifices as they watch others neglect their role. 'The neighbors will ask, 'What about the county land? There's no routine maintenance,' ' said Shelly Aina. Her husband Dana Aina said he reminds people that it is everyone's kuleana, or responsibility, to take care of land and people. 'An island is a canoe, a canoe is an island,' he said, quoting a Hawaiian proverb. 'We all have to paddle together.' Bigger stakeholders are starting to make changes. Among them, Hawaii passed legislation to create a state fire marshal post, and its main utility, Hawaiian Electric, is undergrounding some power lines and installing AI-enabled cameras to detect ignitions earlier. Meanwhile, Firewise communities have found that doing their own mitigation gives them more clout when asking for funding or for others to do their part. After the 66-residence community of Kawaihae Village on Hawaii Island joined Firewise, they were finally able to get a neighboring private landowner and the state to create fuel breaks and clear grasses. 'Without that, we wouldn't have been on anyone's radar,' said Brenda DuFresne, committee member of Kawaihae Firewise. 'I think Firewise is a way to show people that you're willing to help yourself.' Angueira writes for the Associated Press.
The Independent
25-03-2025
- General
- The Independent
After Lahaina fire, Hawaii residents address their risk by becoming 'Firewise'
The car tires, propane tanks, gas generators and rusty appliances heaped on the side of a dirt road waiting to be hauled away filled Desiree Graham with relief. 'That means all that stuff is not in people's yards," she said on a blustery July day in Kahikinui, a remote Native Hawaiian homestead community in southeast Maui where wildfire is a top concern. In June, neighbors and volunteers spent four weekends clearing rubbish from their properties in a community-wide effort to create 'defensible space,' or areas around homes free of ignitable vegetation and debris. They purged 12 tons of waste. 'It's ugly, but it's pretty beautiful to me,' said Graham, a member of Kahikinui's Firewise committee, part of a rapidly growing program from the nonprofit National Fire Protection Association that helps residents assess their communities' fire risk and create plans to mitigate it. Kahikinui is one of dozens of Hawaii communities seeking ways to protect themselves as decades of climate change, urban development, and detrimental land use policies culminate to cause more destructive fires. The state has 250,000 acres of unmanaged fallow agricultural land, nearly all of its buildings sit within the wildland-urban interface, and two-thirds of communities have only one road in and out. But experts say that even with so many factors out of communities' control, they can vastly improve their resilience — by transforming their own neighborhoods. 'Fire is not like other natural hazards, it can only move where there is fuel, and we have a lot of say in that,' said Nani Barretto, co-executive director of the Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization (HWMO), a 25-year-old nonprofit at the forefront of the state's fire-risk mitigation. Neighborhoods all over the United States are wrestling with the same challenge, some in places that never worried about fire before. A recent Headwaters Economics analysis found 1,100 communities in 32 states shared similar risk profiles to places recently devastated by urban wildfires. A 'Firewise' movement HWMO helps communities like Kahikinui become Firewise. In the 10 years preceding the August 2023 Maui fires that destroyed Lahaina, 15 Hawaii communities joined Firewise USA. Since then, the number has more than doubled to 31, with a dozen more in the process of joining. 'Everyone was like, 'My God, what can we do?'' said Shelly Aina, former chair of the Firewise committee for Waikoloa Village, an 8,000-resident community on the west side of the Big Island, recalling the months after the Maui fires. The development — heavily wind exposed, surrounded by dry invasive grasses and with just one main road in and out — had already experienced several close calls in the last two decades. It was first recognized as Firewise in 2016. As HWMO-trained home assessors, Shelly and her husband Dana Aina have done over 60 free assessments for neighbors since 2022, evaluating their properties for ignition vulnerabilities. Volunteers removed kiawe trees last year along a fuel break bordering houses. Residents approved an extra HOA fee for vegetation removal on interior lots. Measures like these can have outsized impact as people in fire-prone states adapt to more extreme wildfires, according to Dr. Jack Cohen, a retired U.S. Forest Service scientist. 'The solution is in the community, not out there with the fire breaks, because those don't stop the fire in extreme conditions,' said Cohen. Direct flames from a wildfire aren't what typically initiate an urban conflagration, he said. Wind-blown embers can travel miles away from a fire, landing on combustible material like dry vegetation, or accumulating in corners like where a deck meets siding. 'They're urban fires, not wildfires,' said Cohen. The solutions don't always require expensive retrofits like a whole new roof, but targeting the specific places within 100 feet of the house where embers could ignite material. In dense neighborhoods, that requires residents work together, making community-wide efforts like Firewise important. 'The house is only as ignition resistant as its neighbors,' said Cohen. Communities can't transform alone Even with renewed interest in fire resilience, community leaders face challenges in mobilizing their neighbors. Mitigation can take money, time and sacrifice. It's not enough to cut the grass once, for example, vegetation has to be regularly maintained. Complacency sets in. Measures like removing hazardous trees can cost thousands of dollars. 'I don't know how we deal with that, because those who have them can't afford to take them down,' said Shelly Aina. The Ainas try offering low-cost measures, like installing metal screening behind vents and crawl spaces to keep out embers. HWMO helps with costs where it can. It gave Kahikinui a $5,000 grant for a dumpster service to haul out its waste, and helped Waikoloa Village rent a chipper for the trees it removed. It's been hard to keep up with the need, said Barretto, but even just a little bit of financial assistance can have an exponential impact. 'You give them money, they rally,' she said. 'We can give them $1,000 and it turns into 1,000 man hours of doing the clearing.' HWMO was able to expand its grant program after the Maui fires with donations from organizations like the Bezos Earth Fund and the American Red Cross. At a time when federal funding for climate mitigation is uncertain, communities need far more financial support to transform their neighborhoods, said Headwaters Economics' Kimi Barrett, who studies the costs of increasing fire risk. 'If what we're trying to do is save people and communities, then we must significantly invest in people and communities,' said Barrett. Those investments are just a fraction of the billions of dollars in losses sustained after megafires, said Barrett. A recent study by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Allstate found that $1 in resilience and preparation investment can save $13 in economic and property losses after a disaster. Another hurdle is asking residents to do work and make sacrifices as they watch others neglect their role. 'The neighbors will ask, 'What about the county land?' There's no routine maintenance,'' said Shelly Aina. Her husband Dana Aina said he reminds people that it is everyone's kuleana, or responsibility, to take care of land and people. 'An island is a canoe, a canoe is an island,' he said, quoting a Hawaiian proverb. 'We all have to paddle together.' Bigger stakeholders are starting to make changes. Among them, Hawaii passed legislation to create a state fire marshal post, and its main utility, Hawaiian Electric, is undergrounding some power lines and installing AI-enabled cameras to detect ignitions earlier. Meanwhile, Firewise communities have found that doing their own mitigation gives them more clout when asking for funding or for others to do their part. After the 66-residence community of Kawaihae Village on Hawaii Island joined Firewise, they were finally able to get a neighboring private landowner and the state to create fuel breaks and clear grasses. 'Without that we wouldn't have been on anyone's radar,' said Brenda DuFresne, committee member of Kawaihae Firewise. 'I think Firewise is a way to show people that you're willing to help yourself.' —— Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP's philanthropy coverage, visit
