Wildfire making the news

I was browsing a recent issue of National Geographic recently and came across an article about wildfire in California. I can't remember a lot about the article but since then it seems I have notices quite a few stories about wildfire. Many of these do not focus on climate change or the things I directly address in my article but instead look at other interesting aspects of wildfire that bring attention to, and get people talking about, the broader issue.

One story I saw from the Associated press looked at a specific wildfire that burned 12 houses in Spokane, Wash. last summer. This was interesting to me because I originally planned to use that same fire as an introduction to my story but was unable to get in contact with any of the residents who lost their houses in the fire.



By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS
Associated Press Writer
SPOKANE, Wash. —
A wildfire that destroyed 12 homes in the Spokane area last summer was caused by an illegal recreational fire that was not fully extinguished, and then was fanned by raging winds, state Public Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland said Tuesday

The state's findings will be turned over to the state attorney general's office and to the Spokane County prosecutor's office. Those agencies will decide if any charges or claims are brought against the people involved in starting the fire, Sutherland said.

Sutherland said the fire cost at least $3 million to fight and caused as much as $50 million in property damage.

"This thing could have been a hell of a lot worse than it was," Sutherland said, pointing to recent destructive fires in California. "This was a very, very scary fire,"...


Another article, this one out of California looked at recent telephone scams that take advantage of people after fires. The callers claim to be collecting money for firefighters yet the government says they do not use such a system to collect money for firefighters.

"The state's findings will be turned over to the state attorney general's office and to the Spokane County prosecutor's office. Those agencies will decide if any charges or claims are brought against the people involved in starting the fire, Sutherland said.

Sutherland said the fire cost at least $3 million to fight and caused as much as $50 million in property damage.

"This thing could have been a hell of a lot worse than it was," Sutherland said, pointing to recent destructive fires in California. "This was a very, very scary fire,'"...

This was intersting to me because I had never heard of these scams.

In addition to these stories there have been a great deal of articles about current or recent California wildfires that have burned late in the season. In my article I wrote about one of the major effects of climate change, this being longer fire seasons. It would be interesting to take a look at all of these California wildfire stories and see if there is anything about how late in the season these fires are buring and if there has been an increase in late fire season fires in Californian in recent years?