Free Republic

AZUSA, Calif., 7:52 a.m. PDT September 3, 2002 - A wildfire in the San Gabriel Mountains that forced people to flee campgrounds over the Labor Day weekend has grown to 14,429 acres, officials said Tuesday. The blaze, which started Sunday afternoon about 30 miles northeast of Los Angeles, was 5 percent contained, said Linda Steinberg, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service. It was expected that the wildfire would be fully contained by Sept. 10, Steinberg said.

<p>"While visiting the west coast this week, I saw the destructive effects of one of the worst wildfire seasons in history," Bush said in his weekly radio address.</p> <p>"As we work to put out the fires and bring relief to their victims, we also have a responsibility to prevent the devastation that can be caused by future fires," he added.</p> <p>Bush said U.S. forest policy needed to focus on thinning out trees to reduce the incidence and damage from wildfires. He characterized the current U.S. forest policy as a, "hands-off approach" that was "devastating to our environment."</p>

LOS ANGELES, Aug 19, 2002 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- With President Bush expected this week to call for a scaling back of overgrown forests that have turned into fire hazards, the Wilderness Society said Monday that the environmental movement should not be blamed for wildfires that have burned through nearly 6 million acres this year. The organization issued a statement denying charges from some western lawmakers that environmentalists have used legal challenges to derail efforts to clear out forest areas thick with tinder-dry brush and small trees and, instead, argued that the U.S. Forest Service was too...

Australian and New Zealand fire fighters were deployed today to a massive wildfire burning out of control on the United States' west coast. Weary US fire fighters have struggled for a month to contain what has become Oregon's largest fire in more than 100 years. "We are excited to have the Australians and New Zealanders here because we need all of the help we can get," Paul Galloway, a spokesman at the Oregon fire fighting headquarters, said. "It's a pretty significant fire that has stretched our resources on a national level." Australia and New Zealand sent 48 of their most...