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Wildfire sweeps through south Reno, several homes destroyed, evacuations underway

Police in Reno went house to house in the middle of the night, pounding on doors and telling residents they had to evacuate as a roughly 400-acre blaze raged in rough terrain, destroyed homes and injured some people. At least one man is dead, after suffering a fatal cardiac arrest while evacuating. Nearly 10,000 people from the edge of the city have been evacuated from the path of the massive wildfire and the local fire chief said the blaze could rage through Saturday.

A huge forest fire in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota has sent ash and smoke to large parts of Wisconsin, including metro Milwaukee where air quality has worsened progressively over the past few hours. And as the sky took on the appearance of southern California smog, the Milwaukee Brewers have decided to close the roof of Miller Park for the game tonight against the Colorado Rockies. Tyler Barnes, vice president of communication for the club, said that haze and cooler temperatures were the reasons for closing the roof. Readings for particle pollution shot up sharply this afternoon in...

BASTROP, Texas — Gov. Rick Perry did not show up as expected Saturday at a news conference convened by his office to brief reporters on the Texas wildfires. Perry aides, citing “logistical issues,” said the governor initially had been scheduled to appear at a location with restricted access. The location was changed to an accessible spot, which was a burned-out home and chocolate shop along the main highway, and local officials briefed the media on the fire situation without him. "He's in Austin," said Allison Castle, a spokeswoman for the governor, in response to a flurry of questions about Perry's...

Fires broke out across Central Texas Sunday. The hot, dry, windy conditions made the job that much harder for firefighters. Authorities say 14,000 acres have burned in Bastrop, destroying 300 homes. The fire is near FM 1441 and Highway 21. People in the areas of Wilderness Ridge, Cedar Creek and Alan Creek were evacuated. Four shelters have been set up in the Bastrop area for evacuees. An estimated 2,000 to 3,000 acres of 6,500-acre Bastrop State Park have been burned in the ongoing Bastrop County wildfire. Another fire on Griffin League Ranch is moving south and forced the evacuation of...

UPDATE 7:30 P.M.: Mark Stanford, the fire chief for the Texas Forest Service , said subdivisions have been evacuated there but they have no estimate on what structures have been lost. People are being told to evacuate to the First Baptist Church in Smithville and Bastrop Middle School, Stanford said. In addition, State Highways 71 and 21 in Bastrop County have been closed, Stanford said. Update, 6:48 p.m.: Wildfires have consumed more than 6,000 acres in Bastrop County, and firefighters are still working to get the blazes under control. According to Bastrop Police Department Spokesman Michal Hubbard, hundreds of homes...

Authorities have ordered an evacuation of Los Alamos due the threat from Las Conchas wildfire. Below is a press release from Los Alamos County that was issued moments ago: Los Alamos County officials are reporting the fire is now threatening Los Alamos. They are ordering a mandatory evacuation which will begin and proceed in this order: Group 1: Western, Quemazon, Ponderosa; Group 2: North Community, Barranca Mesa, North Mesa; Group 3: East of Diamond and the remainder of the town site. White Rock is NOT being evacuated at this time. Residents in Los Alamos should NOT go to White Rock...

Fire-gate, the cover up of who started the Arizona wildfires. Smugglers have exploited environmental restrictions along the border for decades. Arizonans pay the price after smugglers set several wildfires that have burned homes and cost millions of dollars. All of the images in this video were taken after the forest was closed to the public. Smugglers and Illegal Aliens were among the only people in the wilderness. The Department of Homeland Security has failed to provide security for the people of Arizona and beyond.

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Governor Rick Perry renewed his disaster proclamation Saturday for a sixth time since it was originally issued in December of 2010. Perry’s office issued a release Saturday saying the renewal was due to ongoing threat from wildfires across the state. The proclamation covers 254 counties in Texas and allows for necessary resources to help fight the fires and aid in response efforts. “I am thankful for the ongoing sacrifice from first responders as they continue fighting the wildfires that are ravaging Texas homes and property,” Gov. Perry said. “I urge the federal government to quickly grant Texas...

Thousands of people have fled their homes in northern Alberta where two out-of-control wildfires breached a town's defences and have burned down hundreds of buildings, including the town hall, police station and the radio station. The RCMP said the Town of Slave Lake is on fire and many homes have burned down. The fire is apparently out of control, engulfing about half of the town.

Federal employees started one of the devastating fires in West Texas recently but, the Obama Administration still won’t declare the region a disaster area despite the fact that 2.5 million acres have been burned. ... The Obama Administration sent aid to Mexico to battle a 386 square mile fire but refused to consider the 2.5 million acre fire in Texas a disaster area. ... Since the beginning of wildfire season, local and state firefighters have responded to more than 9,000 fires that have destroyed more than 400 homes and burned more than 2.5 million acres, an area the size of...

Just last month the U.S. sent two Air force cargo planes to help Mexico battle back wildfires in the northern part of it's country, fires that burned 386 square miles. It's a move that West Texas Congressman Francisco Canseco (R-Fort Stockton) thinks is a hypocritical one by the Obama administration as Texas has requested the same sort of federal aid but has been denied it. "386 square miles pales with the 2.5 million acres of land that have been burned and scorched beyond recognition," says Canseco. And Former FEMA Director Michael Brown thinks that a "snub" like this reeks of...

EL PASO - The temperature's rising, fires are raging across the state, and now a political debate is heating up. The State of Texas is desperate for rain. More than 8,000 wildfires across the state have burned more than 1.8 million acres of land and destroyed almost 400 homes. The sky hasn't dropped one significant bit of water in three months. Firefighters are exhausted. That's why Governor Rick Perry has issued an official state proclamation for prayer in effect through Easter Sunday. That's not sitting well with everyone. "He as our governor, as our leader, should not make policy or...

It just happened. Not much info on it yet. **URGENT** KGO-TV: Reported "explosion" near San Francisco grows to 6-alarm fire. http://twitter.com/USABreakingNews

Authorities in Colorado are searching for eight people who didn't leave their homes as a wildfire tore through a canyon in the foothills near Boulder. Sheriff's Cmdr. Rich Brough said Wednesday that 20 people were initially reported missing and 12 have been accounted for. It's unclear whether the remaining eight were in some of the 53 homes that have been reported destroyed. Authorities are following up with family members of the missing people and checking homes in the area. About 3,500 people have been evacuated from about 1,000 homes since the fire broke out Monday.

Sixty-three structures have been confirmed lost in the Fourmile Fire, and firefighters have only surveyed half of the burn area, Don Whittemore, assistant chief of the Rocky Mountain Fire Protection District, said at a 4 p.m. news conference. The blaze, which is raging unabated, has burned 7,120 acres in the Boulder County foothills, officials said, but details about specific losses have not been made public.

A wildfire erupted this morning in Fourmile Canyon northwest of Boulder, destroying multiple homes and leading to widespread evacuation in the foothills — and igniting fears the blaze is headed toward the area burned by the Olde Stage Fire in January 2009.

MOSCOW — Two US transport aircraft carrying aid including water tanks and fire-protective clothing arrived in Moscow on Saturday to help Russia battle its worst ever wildfires, state television said. The two US Air Force C-130 planes touched down at Vnukovo airport in the early hours of the morning, television pictures showed. They are expected to be followed by two more C-130 flights later Saturday as well as a charter flight from the US state of California. According to the US State Department, the total value of the US support is around 4.5 million dollars. The delivery follows a promise...

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Tuesday took part in extinguishing forest fires in Ryazan Province on board an amphibious firefighting airplane. The Russian head of government was the co-pilot for half an hour aboard a Be-200 plane scooping up water from the nearby Oka River and dumping it on raging forest fires some 200 kilometers southeast of Moscow. He dumped approximately 12 tons of water on each of two fires, extinguishing both completely. Putin initially sat in the cabin in front of a thermal imaging monitor together with Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu and Ryazan Governor Oleg Kovalev. However,...

A thin layer of smoke is covering much of New Hampshire today, spillover from more than 50 wildfires that are burning out of control in Quebec. The fires have been burning since last week over about 150,000 acres in central Quebec, north of Montreal and Quebec City, and about 500 miles north of Manchester.

CLEVELAND - After a snowy winter, conditions have turned dry enough across northern Ohio that forecasters are warning of the potential for wildfires. The National Weather Service has issued a hazardous weather outlook about a fire threat stretching throughout the state’s northern tier of counties, including the cities of Toledo, Mansfield, Canton and Youngstown. The weather service says dry air, low humidity and winds of up to 20 mph into the weekend could spread any grass fires that are started. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources says April is one of Ohio’s peak months for wildfires because vegetation has not...

DIAMOND BAR, Calif. — A cluster of brush fires erupted along the fringes of suburban neighborhoods in eastern Los Angeles County on Tuesday. Helicopters and SuperScooper airplanes roared low over homes to drop loads of water on the flames in hilly terrain just outside back yards. Lines of widely separated flame moved across rolling grasslands. Weather appeared to be on firefighters' side, with little wind evident. County Fire Inspector Steve Zermeno said reports of five to eight separate fires near State Route 60 came in about 11:45. The area is about 25 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. About 150...

LAKE VIEW TERRACE, Calif. (KABC) -- It was an emotional tribute for the 1,200 to 1,500 firefighters that gathered early Friday morning to say their personal goodbyes to the two firefighters killed in the Station Fire. Capt. Ted Hall and firefighters Arnie Quinones both died Sunday afternoon when their vehicle went over the side of a mountain. ..."It was just important to bring closure," said Paul Lowenthal from the Santa Rosa Fire Department. "It's not only a family within your own station. It's a family across the state, across the country, so we all look out for one another, and...

The so-called Station Fire, which now covers more than 120,000 Southern California acres and is burning largely uncontained, continues to threaten the century-old Mount Wilson Observatory, home to astronomer Edwin Hubble at the time he made his landmark observations of the universe's expansion. The observatory is currently unmanned due to the fire threat and the attending smoke, but a webcam atop Mount Wilson's 150-foot solar tower has provided observatory managers and concerned observers with a view from the scene. At 12:55 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Time) the camera showed a great deal of smoke but no flames. ...According to the Los...

LOS ANGELES – A U.S. Forest Service official says the huge wildfire burning in the mountains north of Los Angeles was human-caused. Deputy incident commander Carlton Joseph said Wednesday that it's not known specifically how it was started. Investigators will be trying to determine whether it was accidental or arson. Carlton says investigators have leads that brought them to the conclusion but he will not give any further information. Carlton notes that the options were lightning or a human cause and lightning has been ruled out.

Cooler temperatures Tuesday could help firefighters slow down a fast-moving, deadly wildfire that has charred more than 105,000 acres in Southern California. ... The fire, which has sent thick smoke spiraling as much as 20,000 feet into the air, is creating its own wind patterns, officials said. As a result, it has become unpredictable. ... Triple-digit temperatures combined with low humidity helped the Station Fire more than double in size on Monday from at least 40,000 acres to more than 100,000 acres.

AUBURN, Calif. -- A fast-moving wildfire burned dozens of homes and scorched hundreds of acres Sunday afternoon in Placer County, prompting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to declare a state of emergency. The fire started near Highway 49 and Bell Road in north Auburn at about 2:20 p.m. (map). It destroyed at least 60 structures, many of them homes in the North Park and South Park subdivisions, and the blaze burned about 275 acres overall. "It's absolute devastation. My sister's house is up there, and we think it's the only one standing," resident Jody said. "We weren't able to get back into...

The fire burning in Angeles National Forest is approaching the historic solar observatory and television transmission towers atop Mt. Wilson, according to Los Angeles County fire officials. The communications towers house transmitters for every major television station in Los Angeles. “We expect it to get there in the next two to four hours,” said county fire Capt. Mark Savage. Crews were clearing brush around the structures, but fire officials were not sure if they could leave personnel on the mountain to fight the flames because of the danger and limited escape routes. The fire is less than two miles away.

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 26 (UPI) -- Smoke filled the skies over the Los Angeles Basin Wednesday as a quick-moving wildfire expanded to 750 acres in the mountains north of the city, officials said. With high temperatures and dry winds fueling the flames, firefighters said just 10 percent of the fire was contained by morning. The National Weather Service said temperatures were expected to reach triple digits in the valley, the Los Angeles Times reported Campgrounds in the Angeles National Forest were evacuated Tuesday after a brush fire broke out near the Morris Dam north of Azusa in late afternoon. About...

ATHENS (Reuters) - Wildfires that tore through suburbs of Athens and forced thousands of people to flee their homes were contained on Tuesday as the government's handling of the disaster became an election issue. Likely to face voters early next year, the conservative government said very strong winds had made it difficult to fight fires in east Attica where swathes of forest and more than 150 homes were destroyed. "If what we experienced in Attica is the best this government can do, then it is obvious we must urgently replace it," the liberal daily Ethnos said in its main editorial....

PALMER: Destructive thieves take everything that's not nailed down and then some at headquarters. Daniel Skriloff, an Alaska wildfire fighter, had just come off the line, battling the oppressive heat and smoke of the 12,000-acre Hardluck Creek blaze near Fairbanks, when he got the bad news. Back at the Palmer-based headquarters for the Pioneer Peak Hotshots, thieves -- as part of a storm of theft and destruction -- broke into and stole his Subaru Legacy from the gated parking lot. "It sucks," said the third-year firefighter, who was back in Palmer dealing with insurance forms on Tuesday. "You name it,...

LOS ANGELES -- David Gerboth is a captain in the San Diego Fire Department, but he spent most of last summer crisscrossing California putting out wildfires. There were the 16 days battling a fire in Hayfork, 720 miles to the north. Then he spent 21 days fighting other blazes that burned 86,500 acres. As California's wildfires consume more land each year, the state is increasingly relying on firefighters like Mr. Gerboth. Under state mutual-aid agreements, he and thousands of other local firefighters are organized into teams that can be quickly dispatched to fight a fire in a neighboring county --...

A California wildfire forced the evacuation of more than 2,000 people near the surfing town of Santa Cruz, emptying wineries and rustic homes on Friday. Billowing white smoke, punctuated by orange flames, covered rolling hills in television footage of the coastal mountain fire about 80 miles south of San Francisco.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Powerful winds during a night in which "all hell broke loose" have pushed a raging wildfire to the doorstep of this wealthy coastal city, threatening to destroy dozens more homes and leading to the evacuation of more than 20,000 people. Firefighters were putting out roof fires Friday as gusts drove the flames down from the steep canyons above Santa Barbara and started burning homes in the residential flatlands. Once tame, the fire front now stretches for five miles, city Fire Chief Andrew DiMizio said. "Literally last night, all hell broke loose," he said.

11:22 a.m. update: Winds have remained relatively calm in the morning hours, much as fire officials had expected. Crews are attacking lines vigorously in anticipation of heavy winds this afternoon. "Today is supposed to be a carbon copy of yesterday," County Fire Chief Tom Franklin said, noting that wind gusts were measured yesterday at up to 70 mph. "There's nothing you can do at that point." He also dismissed any notion that there is a lack of urgency among firefighters or officials, pointing out that approximately 1,400 firefighters have been assigned to the blaze. "The bulk of these people are...

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Gusty winds have driven a wildfire into outlying neighborhoods of Santa Barbara, Calif., and residents of more homes have been told to leave. ... The fire lay dormant most of the day. But strong winds with gusts up to 50 mph arrived in the afternoon and stoked the fire. The sheriff's office says an evacuation order covering 1,200 homes has been expanded to 2,000 homes.

The town’s defensible space proposal — and how it might be enforced — has some Breckenridge property owners frustrated with the prospect they’ll have to pay to cut down the very trees they were once told to protect. More than 40 residents visited Breckenridge town hall Tuesday afternoon for lively discussion on the future of their landscaping and wildfire protection. The aging forest and spread of mountain pine-beetle infestation have made the possibility of catastrophic wildfire reasonable enough for council to consider the proposal. The idea behind defensible space is to create buffer zones between structures and forests. Officials with...

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FIFTY people are confirmed dead in bushfires that have devastated several Victorian communities. Police have just confirmed the new figure. 640 houses have been destroyed. While firebugs are being blamed for several blazes ravaging Victoria, the Country Fire Authority has confirmed that several fires are being deliberately relit by arsonists. CFA deputy chief Steve Warrington said an arsonist is hampering firefighters’ efforts in Churchill with an intense blaze taking hold. "We know we do have someone who is lighting fires in this community. While we often think it's spotting, we also know that there are people lighting fires deliberately," he...

BESMAYA RANGE COMPLEX — A group of Iraqi Soldiers stepped up to help California residents victimized by recent wildfires raging throughout the state. Iraqi Army Col. Abbas Fadhil, Besmaya Range Complex commander, and his team of “Abbas’ Eagles” raised $500 for wildfire relief. “We want to send a message to the American president and the American people,” Abbas said. “We feel that we are a family — one body. When one part of the body suffers, the other parts suffer, too.” This is the fourth donation the Soldiers of Besmaya have sent to the American people recently. In September, they...

Forest Service Investigator Believes Barton Lied About Letter. The lead U.S. Forest Service investigator looking into the cause of Colorado's largest wildfire testified Tuesday that she doesn't believe a burning letter sparked the fire. Agent Kimberly Jones was testifying in a Denver federal civil case where five insurance companies and several property owners are suing the federal government for more than $7 million because a Forest Service employee was responsible. That employee, Terry Barton, was convicted of starting the 2002 Hayman wildfire and spent nearly six years in a federal prison. When Jones testified that she didn't believe there ever...

Our view:It’s criminally negligent when politicians can’t set aside differences long enough to talk for a morning about an urgent public safety hazard The organizers of a wildfire forum in Sacramento on Wednesday brought together three members of the U.S. Congress and half a dozen state lawmakers. They drew the California fire marshal, the head of the state Fire Safe Council, Forest Service researchers and officials, and county supervisors from around the region. STORY TOOLS E-mail story Comments iPod friendly Printer friendly News alerts Subscribe to the paper Submit a news tip More Editorials Delta overhaul can't undercut northern rights...

Nearly 2,000 firefighters made a stand Saturday on Highway 1, near famous inns and spas bereft of tourists on this holiday weekend, as crews sought to beat back the out-of-control Basin Complex wildfire in Big Sur in advance of a heat wave expected to start rolling into the area today.

Vast Peat Fire May Burn for Months in North CarolinaWillie Drye for National Geographic NewsJune 13, 2008 About 450 firefighters are battling a 40,000-acre (16,000-hectare) blaze in northeastern North Carolina that could burn for months unless the drought-stricken region gets a downpour. The fire, which was sparked by a lightning strike on June 1, is currently the largest active wildfire in the United States. Containing and extinguishing the fire is posing a unique challenge, because it is burning in highly flammable peatland. Peat is partially decomposed plant matter formed in wetlands that can be harvested as fuel. It can be...

Firefighters are evacuating residents near a wildfire that is burning out of control this morning in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said the fire has burned about 500 acres. Sheriff's deputies from Santa Cruz and Santa Clara counties are in the process of evacuating residents living in a three-mile stretch near Mount Madonna Road, according to Chris Morgan, a fire prevention specialist. Morgan estimates there are at least 20 homes in the are being threatened by the fire. "Our main priority is evacuations, getting people out safely," Morgan said. "Then we can start...

Along the fringes of land scorched by last fall's massive wildfires, pockets of oat grass are sprouting from the Malibu canyons to the San Diego suburbs. A damp winter has suppressed large fires this year, but encouraged the growth of combustible grasses, highlighting an irony of wildfire season that has become a punch line of sorts for firefighters. "If rainfall is normal, it will be a terrible fire season. If it's a drought year, it will be a terrible fire season," said Thom Porter of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The number of acres burned this year...

Crews began tearing away the charred planks and blackened cables of the Dewey Bridge on Monday after fire gutted the 92-year-old structure that had spanned the Colorado River 28 miles north of Moab, Utah. Flames blamed on a 7-year-old Grand Junction boy playing with matches Sunday afternoon had devoured the bridge’s creosote-soaked wooden deck and rails. The fire forced an Afton, Wyo., family of five to flee the campsite they had just upstream from the bridge and irritated a Fruita woman who remembered that ranchers used to use controlled burns on the stream and river bottoms to avoid just such...

Rapid development in wildfire-prone areas and continued bone-dry weather have alarmed California firefighters, who began a sweeping assessment of fire danger Tuesday and what's needed to meet it. Catastrophic wildfires that burned across the state last month and in 2003 were of an intensity that should be witnessed rarely - perhaps once a century, they say. The proximity of those fires has raised fears that furious blazes could become more frequent, threatening lives and property. "We've had our second 100-year fire in four years. So, if you are going to have a 100-year fire every four years, it seems that...

At Camp Gan Israel, crews fighting devastating blazes in mountains east of Los Angeles find more than a source of water Associated Press Published: 10.28.07, 09:36 / Israel Jewish Scene Dark beards blowing, black felt fedoras flying off their heads, the four hassidic rabbis clapped their chests with open palms and cheered as the firefighting helicopter dipped its bucket into their camp swimming pool. At the Camp Gan Israel, crews fighting devastating blazes in the mountains east of Los Angeles have found more than a source of water. The rabbis have been serving kosher meals, spiced with a dollop of...

IRVINE, Calif. -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Saturday pledged to ruthlessly hunt down anyone suspected of setting a fast-moving blaze that has burned 27,600-acres in Santiago, and promised swift punishment for scam artists and looters. Authorities believe at least two of the wildfires have suspicious origins and are the result of arson. "If I were one of those people who started the fires I would not sleep soundly," Schwarzenegger said. "We're right behind you -- turn yourself in." "We know in Orange County this was arson," said Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona. "This was not some random act that...