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You know how sometimes when you try to fix a problem you end up causing more trouble for yourself than what the initial problem posed? Here's another instance of this phenomenon with a man trying to end the lives of some wasps that are holed up in his garage. When will humans learn, don’t fool around with Mother Nature and her offspring? (FARDAL, Norway, Aug. 7 (UPI) — A Fardal, Norway, man said his attempt to rid his garage of wasps ended with the structure burning to the ground with his car inside.

Members of the honor society for the Boy Scouts of America who had to change their service project plans in Wyoming when the U.S. Forest Service instead allowed the Rainbow Family hippie group to use a location the Scouts had sought now are helping the federal agency fight a forest fire in the state. According to a report in the Casper Star-Tribune the Scouts, some of an estimated 1,000 members of the Order of the Arrow in the state, have "stepped in" to help firefighters in the Bridger-Teton National Forest fight the New Fork Lakes fire, about 19 miles north...

Weary firefighters got no Independence Day reprieve from a pair of out-of-control wildfires that roared along California's central coast, chewing through opposite ends of an arid forest in the Los Padres National Forest. Despite cooler temperatures and light winds, flames from the stubborn fire that forced the evacuation of Big Sur inched closer to historic vacation retreats. Meanwhile, firefighters farther south dealt with winds with speeds up to 40 mph that fanned a wildfire in Santa Barbara County. About 5,000 homes there were under evacuation orders, while residents in 1,400 homes were warned to pack up and be ready to...

BIG SUR,CA Weary firefighters got no Independence Day reprieve from a pair of out-of-control wildfires that roared along California's central coast, chewing through opposite ends of an arid forest in the Los Padres National Forest. Despite cooler temperatures and light winds, flames from the stubborn fire that forced the evacuation of Big Sur inched closer to historic vacation retreats. Meanwhile, firefighters farther south dealt with winds with speeds up to 40 mph that fanned a wildfire in Santa Barbara County. About 5,000 homes there were under evacuation orders, while residents in 1,400 homes were warned to pack up and be...

BIG SUR -- The fires that bedevil California took another ominous turn Thursday as a blaze near Goleta triggered more evacuations and authorities shut another 10 miles of Highway 1 along the flaming Big Sur coast. Mushrooming in size, the Goleta fire was declared a local emergency by Santa Barbara County officials. Because of its proximity to populated areas, it was also designated the top firefighting priority in a state currently plagued with a multitude of fires, some of them burning without intervention in remote areas. In Goleta, residents of more than 1,600 homes had been ordered to evacuate by...

A fire has reached as close as 2 miles to populated areas of Goleta today after burning through about 250 acres in Los Padres National Forest since Tuesday evening, authorities said. Meanwhile, the stubborn Big Sur blaze jumped a containment line this morning, forcing more evacuations there and shutting down Highway 1 -- the area's chief road -- for 30 miles. The development was a setback not just for local residents but for a number of famed resorts and restaurants that had been in harm's way earlier but reopened in the past few days.

WASHINGTON, June 24, 2008 – Army and Air National Guard members from California and North Carolina are supporting firefighting efforts in Northern California today following a state active-duty call-up by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and a request for airborne firefighting assets by the Interagency Fire Center. The governor's office reported yesterday that a "swarm of dry lighting cells over the last 16 hours sparked nearly 400 new fires across the state, spanning from Monterey and Fresno counties to the Oregon-California border." Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency June 22 for Monterey and Trinity counties. The governor made similar declarations for...

This is the complete list of 2008 major incidents that have been posted to this site. Please use the dropdown to select the number of incidents you would like to see per page. If you have an RSS News Feed Reader or RSS enabled browser, you can subscribe to the CAL FIRE Incidents RSS News Feed (RSS Help)

Arsonists like to pick on Brevard County more than almost any area of Florida. So far this decade, the county ranks second statewide in the amount of brush land and woods intentionally set ablaze by firebugs, state records show. Police suspect that at least one arsonist ignited the south Brevard blazes this week. Authorities were questioning a Palm Bay man Wednesday but did not charge him. They warned that others could have started fires. "It's not uncommon for them to be a firefighter or a police officer," he said. One such case was Henry Schook III, 30, a Brevard County...

Relentless wildfires burned Tuesday morning across Florida's Atlantic coast, taxing firefighters and overwhelming residents trying to save their homes with garden hoses. Firefighters in Brevard County were working for a third day trying to stop flames that have destroyed four homes and damaged about 70. The state's largest blaze has charred about 3,800 acres, or nearly 6 square miles, in the neighboring towns of Palm Bay and Malabar. "Every time I turn around another house is on fire. We don't have enough resources on our own to do a job like this," said Palm Bay spokeswoman Yvonne Martinez. Officials expressed...

WASHINGTON - The Colombian government said Saturday it has fired Mark Penn's public relations firm after the chief campaign strategist for Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton apologized for meeting with Colombian officials pushing a trade deal with the U.S. Colombian officials said they terminated their contract with lobbying and public relations giant Burson-Marsteller in response to a statement released Friday by Penn, the firm's chief executive, calling the meeting an "error in judgment." Clinton opposes the trade deal. "The Colombian government considers this a lack of respect to Colombians, and finds this response unacceptable," government officials said in a news release....

SACRAMENTO -- The Canadian political operative hired by the California Republican Party on a coveted H1B visa to do campaign consulting has been fired after it was revealed he was apparently working in violation of immigration law. The dismissal, announced this week, came after The Chronicle reported last month that Christopher Matthews apparently violated federal immigration law when he also earned money from a second employer. Matthews, a Canadian citizen, was hired last year as deputy political director for the California Republican Party, with responsibility for handling campaign operations and information technology for the country's largest state GOP operation, U.S....

LOS ANGELES -- A homeless man was convicted Friday in federal court of starting a 2006 wildfire that burned more than 163,000 acres in California's Los Padres National Forest. The jury also convicted Steven Emory Butcher, 49, of starting the smaller Ellis Fire in the same forest four years earlier. Butcher was found guilty of two felony counts of starting fires and of one count each of allowing a fire to escape his control, violating restrictions by building a fire on federal forest land and smoking in a federal forest, all misdemeanors. Butcher's lawyer, Deputy Federal Public Defender Jill Gintsling,...

One day after an arsonist set fire to two classrooms at Martin Luther King Jr. High School in East Germantown, firefighters rushed to West Philadelphia High School - twice - yesterday morning when two more small fires erupted. Both of those fires also appeared to have been deliberately set. MLK High, which has been closed since the fire, will be closed again today as clean-up crews continue their work, district spokeswoman Amy Guerin said. Classes will resume Tuesday, and community-service activities planned for Monday, the Martin Luther King holiday, will proceed as scheduled, Guerin said

BOISE, Idaho — A fire station crew must be a little embarrassed by the way some of this state's famous potatoes got fried. Boise firefighters returning from a medical call had to turn their hose on the firehouse kitchen after an overheated pan full of Tater Tots melted and set some cabinets ablaze. The Christmas Eve fire at Station 8 was quickly extinguished, with no injuries. No damage estimate was available. -snip-

The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force successfully flight tested its first Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN)-built Standard Missile-3. The SM-3 Block IA missile engaged and destroyed a medium-range ballistic missile target more than 60 miles above the Pacific Ocean. Personnel at the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai launched the ballistic missile target while the crew of the Japanese destroyer JS KONGO (DDG-173) fired the intercepting missile. "Today's intercept truly paves the way for Japan to deploy a sea-based ballistic missile defense system," said Ed Miyashiro, Raytheon Missile Systems vice president. "The U.S. has gained an important ally that can...

WASHINGTON -- A federal rule that allowed expedited logging on national forests saved thousands of homes during the recent wildfires in California, the Forest Service chief said Thursday.

A federal rule that allowed expedited logging on national forests saved thousands of homes during the recent wildfires in California, the Forest Service chief said Thursday. Gail Kimbell cited "some real vivid examples" in California where the agency's practice of logging without first analyzing its effect on the environment protected homes and spared lives. "The hazardous fuels treatments were instrumental saving thousands of homes" in southern California during recent wildfires near San Diego and Lake Arrowhead, Kimbell said. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the practice Wednesday, saying it violated the National Environmental Policy Act. Kimbell...

A Fairbanks man faces several charges after police say he held a cab driver at gunpoint and fired two shots at an apartment complex...

Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon) will be holding a “Tele-Town hall” teleconference at 10 a.m. Friday to assist San Diego County residents in fire recovery efforts. San Diego County residents are encouraged to participate in Friday’s conference. Interested persons can call 1-800-619-7414 and enter pass code 4208914 to participate. Representatives of several insurance companies will join Hunter on the call to provide information. At this time, questions and concerns regarding cleanup and recovery efforts will be addressed. Hunter’s district office will remain readily available for any other inquiries at 619-448-5201.

Senator Barbara Boxer (D) thanks firefighters at the Running Springs Fire Department November 2, 2007. Boxer had just finished touring the Fredalba neighborhood that was devastated by the recent Slide Fire during her visit to southern California. (GABRIEL LUIS ACOSTA/ PHOTOGRAPHER) RUNNING SPRINGS - Sen. Barbara Boxer praised the firefighters who battled October's wildfires during a Friday visit to the San Bernardino Mountains. "Throughout these fires, which are only now being subdued ... these brave men and women were there selflessly doing their duty," she said. Boxer, D-Calif., spoke at a news conference on Friday outside the headquarters of...

WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. Capitol Police on Friday were investigating the latest in a series of suspicious fires occurring in Senate office buildings. Police spokesman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said a small fire was discovered about 8:00 a.m. EDT in a 2nd floor woman's restroom of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. She said it was quickly extinguished and there were no evacuations or injuries. Schneider said it was at least the 7th confirmed fire in the office buildings since late September. The fires are all suspicious in nature and Capitol Police are exploring the possibility that they are linked, she said....

WASHINGTON - In one week, Southern California's wildfires spewed the same amount of carbon dioxide — the primary global warming gas — as the state's power plants and vehicles did, scientists figure. A new study by two Colorado researchers shows that U.S. wildfires pump a significant amount of the greenhouse gas into the air each year, more than the state of Pennsylvania does. It raises questions about how useful it is to plant trees to offset rising carbon dioxide emissions and soothe environmental consciences. Because the California wildfires occurred just as the study was about to be published, the researchers...

Border Patrol agent James Jacques monitored the road that leads to Barrett Junction yesterday The fact that 11 of the 18 wildfire victims lying in UCSD Medical Center's burn unit are illegal immigrants with no apparent health coverage highlights the daunting financial challenge hospitals face in providing long-term, intensive care for all those who need it. “These are the most expensive kinds of cases, but we don't look at these patients and say, oh, because they aren't legal residents, we'll stop providing care or stop changing their bandages,” said Dr. Thomas McAfee, UCSD's physician-in-chief. “It's part of our ethic to...

<p>SANTA CLARITA, Calif. - A boy playing with matches started a fire in north Los Angeles County that consumed more than 38,000 acres and destroyed 21 homes last week, authorities said Tuesday.</p> <p>The boy, whose name and age were not released, was interviewed a day after the Buckweed Fire was sparked Oct. 21, said sheriff's Sgt. Diane Hecht.</p>

SAN DIEGO - A week after a half million people fled Southern California's wildfires, shelters began closing and residents were figuring out what to do next — even as firefighters kept a wary eye on the possibility of strong winds developing later in the week. There was a chance of moderate Santa Anas — the fierce, dry winds that fanned the flames last week — returning in the next seven days, forecasters said. "It's a little premature to be celebrating, that's for sure," California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Fred Daskoski said. "We're looking for full control within...

I received a press release from Baghdad today, which I know the mainstream media will not pass on to you all. Here is an example of Iraqi charity and gratitude which touched my soul. Imagine how incredibly generous these soldiers are. They have little to support their own families. It’s not enough that they are fighting daily to bring peace to their country. They are actually reaching out to help unfortunate Americans. ...Iraqi Army at Besmaya Installation Support San Diego Fire Victims By U.S. Army Sgt 1st Class Charlene Sipperly Multi-National Security Transition Command – Iraq Public Affairs BAGHDAD, Iraq...

"But first, before all of that, came the winds. They were different, undoubtedly, although no one could have predicted just how deadly and destructive."

SAN DIEGO -- Flames were only one worry for some illegal immigrants in the fire zone. Equally scary were the crowded roads and evacuation centers, heavy with law enforcement officers, including U.S. Border Patrol agents. Some wondered if they would be deported if they went to shelters. "We decided that we wouldn't go because they ask for your name and everything," said day laborer Jose Salgado, waiting for work off the 5 Freeway near Rancho Santa Fe. SNIP (San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders) The mayor, he said, has always looked out for the needs of the migrant community and has...

KIAMESHA LAKE, N.Y. — There was a time when comedians would flock to the Concord Hotel, bringing the house down every weekend with ethnic humor, one-liners and a smattering of risqué jokes. Now, firefighters come to this shuttered monstrosity once a year to burn the house down, section by section. From around the state, firefighters arrive at the Concord not for matzo ball soup, but to tramp through its corridors — setting fires and then putting them out — during a training weekend arranged by the New York State Association of Fire Chiefs. Arthur Winarick, a Russian immigrant who acquired...

SAN DIEGO – Border Patrol officers arrested a man on suspicion of looting a fire area Thursday afternoon in Jamul, the Sheriff's Department said. Officers stopped the man, who was carrying a backpack, and found he had a woman's purse filled with costume jewelry, a sheriff's spokesman said. The suspect was identified through fingerprints as a Mexican citizen with an outstanding felony narcotics warrant. He was arrested and taken to the Central Detention Facility, the spokesman said.

Fresh off her recent assault in which many suspect the culprit to have been 14 Bloody Marys, Air America radio talk host Randi Rhodes has now wandered into Moonbat conspiracy territory with her suggestion that Blackwater was the the cause of the current wildfires in California. Here is a partial transcript (audio available here) of what Randi said on the air on Wednesday: I started just doing Google searches to try and figure out. You know, arson, arson, it was like crazy trying to figure out why is that being downplayed? Why is that, you know, just a small part...

From NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell On Tuesday, FEMA held what was called a "news briefing" on the California fires, but the questions asked did not come from reporters. They were asked instead by FEMA staffers. VIDEO: FEMA apologizes for having staff workers pretend to be reporters at a news briefing on the Southern California wildfires. NBC's Jeannie Ohm has the story. “It is not a practice that we would employ here at the White House or that we -- we certainly don't condone it,” Press Secretary Dana Perino said. “We didn't know about it beforehand. FEMA has issued an apology, saying...

TECATE, CALIF. -- With flames encircling this remote border crossing east of San Diego, U.S. customs inspectors wasted no time evacuating. They closed the gate blocking the lanes into California, wrapped a chain around it and snapped on the lock. But not for long. Minutes later Sunday afternoon, someone cut the chain. The gate swung open. People began rushing through the unguarded crossing ... Since the Harris fire started, agents have arrested more than 200 migrants in the area, many after being smoked out of ravines and trails. Some may have started to cross before the blaze. But some probably...

President eager to show mettle after Katrina muddle If there is a lasting image of presidential detachment that has haunted George W. Bush since Hurricane Katrina, it is the picture of him gazing out the window of Air Force One as he flew over the Gulf Coast en route from his Texas ranch to the White House. It was two days after the storm, New Orleans was 80% flooded, and tens of thousands of people were trapped without help. But the best their commander-in-chief could manage was a presidential flyover. "It's devastating," Bush said then. "It's got to be doubly...

Arson investigators homed in today on two spots where the 25,000-acre Santiago Canyon fire was set, changing their theory that the blaze was ignited in three areas. A liquid was used to light the fire along Santiago Canyon Road in two separate points. The fluid flowed along a channel to a third location, giving the appearance that there were three ignition spots. At a news conference today, federal and local investigators said they had recovered evidence from the V-shaped canyon hollow where the fire started and had interviewed more than one person in the investigation, but had no suspects. They...

High winds and bureaucratic wrangling kept much needed firefighting aircraft on the ground this week, but whom to blame seemed murkier Thursday than the skies above Southern California. Some legislators accused federal fire officials and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of making a slow-footed response followed by fast dancing and photo ops. Schwarzenegger called the criticism "a bunch of nonsense." But one federal legislator was poised to call for congressional hearings. "We'll wait until the smoke clears until I start raising hell," said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach. "We need to put people under oath to find out whether a lack of...

School, park closures in O.C. Thick clouds of smoke, raining ash and the firestorm ripping through canyons have forced the closure of schools and parks. Closures are being evaluated daily. The following are scheduled to be closed through at least today.

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- Another man was arrested on suspicion of arson in California as authorities were investigating into some of the wildfires that have been devastating large areas in the state for five days, officials said Thursday. Los Angeles police said they have taken Catalino Pineda, 41, into custody Wednesday after local residents reported that he light a fire and walked away from a hillside in a suburb area. The arrest was made a day after law enforcement officers shot dead an arson suspect and detained another in San Bernardino, about 100 kilometers east of Los Angeles....

Growing up on Southern California’s fault line, I learned to love the tremors that as elementary school children we felt every week. Earthquakes were terrifying and destructive, but each quake also carried an important lesson — the material possessions we traded life’s precious hours for and looked to as a security blanket could be destroyed at any instant. As I write this under a blood red rising moon, smelling acrid smoke with every breath, I’ve begun to ponder the lessons to be learned from living on this fire line that by one estimate this week turned 900,000 Californians into evacuees....

A swelling armada of firefighting aircraft took to the skies over San Diego County yesterday, but authorities found themselves on the defensive over whether they had called in enough air power. State and federal fire officials based at a joint command center in Riverside said last night that at least 35 helicopters and as many as 22 airplanes had been assigned to drop water and fire retardant in the San Diego region. “We had a significant increase in air support today, no question about it,” said county Supervisor Ron Roberts, who previously had raised concerns about the scarcity of aircraft....

Six undocumented Mexican immigrants were arrested today by U.S. Border Patrol agents at Qualcomm Stadium, after a report that they were stealing food and water meant for evacuees, according to spokesman Damon Foreman. San Diego police responded to a call about alleged theft from the evacuation center and encountered six people in a van who didn't speak English and didn't have California driver's licenses, Foreman said. The police officers called the Border Patrol, who arrived at the stadium and made the arrests, he said. Foreman said the immigrants admitted they were Mexican citizens and that they were stealing.

SACRAMENTO -- Although Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration has improved its readiness for big blazes since the last major round of wildfires hit California in 2003, the state still confronted this week's infernos without all the equipment its experts had advised. A special panel appointed by Schwarzenegger recommended in 2004 that California buy 150 more firetrucks for emergencies. So far only 19 have been ordered. They are scheduled to arrive in time for next year's fire season. The state has not replaced its Vietnam-era helicopters, although the Blue Ribbon Fire Commission had warned that many were nearing the end of their...

Deputies kept a throng of reporters at bay Wednesday while federal and local arson investigators scoured the site along Santiago Canyon Road where the 19,200-acre arson fire began in three spots, according to sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino. Investigators collected evidence and secured the charred crime scene, near an area known to locals as "Grumpys." The presence of FBI, ATF and other investigators sparked new interest in the three-day old arson investigation. Rumors swirled from the canyon roads and through the national air waves that authorities searched a house in connection with the Santiago Fire. The source of the rumor was...

<p>As wildfires raged in Southern California this week, Richard Halsey's embrace of the local shrubland turned prickly.</p> <p>The founding director of the California Chaparral Institute, Mr. Halsey has spent four years defending the existence of chaparral, the term given to the wide varieties of shrubby plants, trees and bushes that dot the region's hilly landscape.</p>

California Rep. Duncan Hunter is AWOL from Capitol Hill today, but for good reason. Instead of casting votes, the Republican presidential hopeful is in his home state trying to help his constituents with the wildfires that are raging in their district. But he's not sleeping at home. Hunter's neighborhood has been evacuated. "We lost ours in the last fire," said Hunter today, referring to a 2003 blaze that burned 2,000 homes around San Diego, including Hunter's.

Using irreverent humor to blast the politicizing of California's wildfires, radio giant Rush Limbaugh today adopted some anti-war war logic to call for the firefighters to be brought home. "I think it's time to bring the firefighters home. I think it's time to bring the firefighters out of there – it's just too dangerous," Limbaugh said on his top-rated program, noting the front-line responders were in grave danger. "They're in there on a false premise anyway, that they can put out the fire. We can't win against the fire, folks, just like we can't win in Iraq. So if the...

At 06:30Am I saw a brief newscast in the fire area around LA . The CA spokesman speaking in the field stated that a motorcyclist had been apprehended attemtpting to set new fires. Apparently an air unit had spotted him and alerted ground units who arrested him trying to leave the area. Has anyone heard anyting further on this?

[snip] HUNTER: You know, they have got to have some creative writers to somehow link these — these natural disasters with — with troops in Iraq, because, first, we have got thousands of Marines who are available right now at Camp Pendleton. And you get a 60-mile-an-hour wind, and a lot of brittle sagebrush in front of you, and this — this what you might call a perfect storm of wind patterns, and a lot of — a lot of heat, and you get these fires moving at an incredible speed across the California sagebrush, you could put the entire...

SAN DIEGO – For four years San Diego County Supervisor Ron Roberts has been trying to make sure the red tape didn't keep the military aircraft from jumping into action during the next local disaster. During the 2003 Cedar fire, military aircraft at Miramar Marine Corps airfield sat idle while in full sight of the flames devastating nearby Scripps Ranch. Bureaucratic controversies kept military resources from at first joining the battle against what became the worst fire in state history. Now a full four days after the latest wildfires began, military helicopters will be flying to the rescue, officials announced...