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Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management Crisis and Emergency Management Newsletter Website |
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October
2008
Volume
15
- Number 1 |
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2008 Wildfire Season
Summary By Morgan Halfhill As of
August 29th,
64,034 wild land fires have burned more than 4.5 million acres so far
this
year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC). Six hundred and seventy four large fires have
been contained this year to date. During
the month of August 11 U.S. states battled fires including states like
California (receiving the majority of the fires and acreage burned),
Idaho,
Washington, Montana, New Jersey and North Carolina.
While these numbers seem alarming, they are
the lower than in the past two years.
Numbers for 2006 include 78,822 fires burning a total of
7.5 million
acres, and the average for the last ten years comes to 67,518 fires
burning
6,218,429 acres. As the month of
September comes to a close only California and Oregon are reporting
large
fires. Many
of these
wildfires coincide, as expected, with abnormally dry or moderate
drought
conditions in affected areas. In
addition, dead fuel moisture levels (which respond solely to ambient
environmental conditions, and are critical in determining fire
potential) have
been low from California to the Dakotas, but in the second half of
August these
fuel levels improved in the High Plains and Pacific Northwest due to
ample
rain. While many of the wildfires this
season were started by natural causes (such as lightning), others were
started
by things such as a discarded cigarettes and limbs falling on power
lines (in
South Carolina). Many state and federal
resources were devoted to responding to and recovering from wildfires. The state of California, alone, received
assistance in the form of personnel and equipment from the DoD, 40
states, and
the District of Columbia, and spent more than 50 million dollars in
assisting
residents. This year Firefighter fatalities associated with wild land
incidents
total 19. http://www.wfas.net/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/ http://www.wnbc.com/news/16776573/detail.html Sources 1)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/01/AR2005090102428.html 2)
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/16/tech/main3840261.shtml?source=related_story 4)
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/04/america/FEMA-Trailers.php 5)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/23/AR2008092303529.html |