wildfires News

Strong Winds Kick up Pacific Northwest Wildfires

Hurricane-force winds and high temperatures kicked up wildfires across parts of the Pacific Northwest over the Labor Day weekend, burning hundreds of thousands of acres and mostly destroying the small town of Malden in eastern Washington. “Today alone, almost 300,000 …

California Firefighters Battling Blazes in North and South

California firefighters are battling large wildfires in Santa Clara and Los Angeles counties. A fire that has burned more than 2.3 square miles north of Gilroy was 15% contained as of Monday, and a smaller fire east of Morgan Hill …

Arctic Temperatures Soar to Record Levels in June, Stoking Wildfires: EU Data

GENEVA/MOSCOW – Temperatures in Arctic Siberia soared to a record average for June amid a heat wave that is stoking some of the worst wildfires the region has ever known, European Union (EU) data showed on Tuesday. Global temperatures last …

Crews Battling 4 Wildfires in Arizona

Hundreds of firefighters continued to battle three major wildfires burning in forested mountains and desert hills across Arizona. Crews were fighting fires in the Santa Catalina Mountains in the Coronado National Forest overlooking Tucson, in the Tonto National Forest northeast …

New Mexico Forest Official Cites Rising Risk of Human-Caused Wildfires

The top administrator of a national forest in northern New Mexico says there’s an elevated risk of human-caused wildfires due to drying conditions and negligence by some forest visitors. Carson National Forest Supervisor James Duran said there’s a high fire …

Wisconsin Governor Issues Emergency Order Due to Wildfires

Wisconsin residents grappling with the coronavirus have something else to worry about now: wildfires. Gov. Tony Evers on April 21 declared statewide state of emergency in response to elevated wildfire conditions. The governor’s office said the state has experienced more …

Climate Forecast for 2020s Is Warmer, Stormier and More Extreme: Opinion

Over the last decade, scientists learned a great deal about the climate, much of it concerning the connection between global warming and extreme events — heat waves, hurricanes, floods, droughts and wildfires. There has been, for many years, an understanding …

Typhoon Hagibis to Cost Japan’s Economy $10B, with Insured Losses in Billions: Aon

Typhoon Hagibis is likely to become one of 2019’s costliest events, with economic costs of more than US$10 billion and insured losses minimally in the billions, according to Aon’s monthly catastrophe report. The storm made landfall in Japan’s Iza Peninsula …

Boosting Resilience to U.S. Wildfires Should Be Insurance Industry Priority: I.I.I.

Nearly a year after the deadliest and costliest wildfire in U.S. history, insurers and the customers they cover are revisiting how to reduce their collective exposure to this risk, according to the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.). “While our research has …

500K-Plus Californians Lose Power; Large Wildfire Rages

More than half a million people have lost power across California as part of a deliberate blackout designed to keep power lines from igniting wildfires. Meanwhile, a major blaze has already erupted. PG&E Corp. and other utilities have cut service …