Free Republic

Al Qaeda is reportedly exploring a new way to attack the U.S., encouraging terrorists to make homemade “fire bombs” to start massive wildfires in California and the western U.S. Al Qaeda magazine gave step-by-step instructions on how to build and use an “ember bomb,” which sends flaming embers out into the dry fields. Battalion Chief Julie Hutchinson said that’s when CAL FIRE jumped into action. “The magazine had very specific outlines and drawings and details on how to create that ‘fire bomb,’ so we felt it was in our interest to go ahead and put that together and determine what...

Environmental regulations restricting the construction of forest access roads have limited the ability of the Forest Service to clear combustible brush and trees, adding dangerous fuel to the wildfires that have ravaged Colorado this summer. The so-called “roadless rule,” which was first implemented in 2001 by President Clinton shortly before he left office, restricts and in many cases prohibits local and federal officials from building and maintaining roads that allow firefighters to clear out growth that could instantly become tinder for a new fire. The Roadless Area Conservation Rule, regularly referred to as the 2001 roadless rule, was adopted in...

Shooters have been blamed for starting a number of fires recently in tinder-dry western states, where conflagrations have erupted near shooting ranges. One, Arizona’s Sunflower Fire, has been positively traced to irresponsible members of a bachelor party who fired an incendiary shotgun shell into the underbrush: The Sunflower Fire — which has burned nearly 18,000 acres of the Tonto National Forest and is not fully contained — began in mid-May after five Arizona men gathered to celebrate the upcoming May 19 nuptials of Bryan Reeder. The group — all in their mid-20s — traveled from Mesa to the Sycamore Creek...

JULY 2---The largest wildfire burning in Arizona was started during a bachelor party when one shotgun-toting celebrant fired a shell that promises to shoot “100 feet of fire, setting everything in its path ablaze,” The Smoking Gun has learned. The Sunflower Fire--which has burned nearly 18,000 acres of the Tonto National Forest and is not fully contained--began in mid-May after five Arizona men gathered to celebrate the upcoming May 19 nuptials of Bryan Reeder. The group--all in their mid-20s--traveled from Mesa to the Sycamore Creek area for a weekend “campout and bachelor party,” according to court records. On Saturday, May...

know, this is also personal. My family and I are approaching a full week as Waldo Canyon Fire evacuees. Did you know that President Obama has been incommunicado with Colorado’s governor for more than two weeks as the nation’s worst wildfires rage across the state? Maybe he thought we were all “doing fine.” After an embarrassing Beltway press briefing revelation about our out-of-touch White House, the administration finally decided to divert the campaigner in chief from his nationwide fundraising frenzy for a quick look-see at our devastated city on Friday. It’s “leadership from behind” you can count on. While he...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Did you know that President Obama has been incommunicado with Colorado's governor for more than two weeks as the nation's worst wildfires rage across the state? Maybe he thought we were all "doing fine." After an embarrassing Beltway press briefing revelation about our out-of-touch White House, the administration finally decided to divert the campaigner in chief from his nationwide fundraising frenzy for a quick look-see at our devastated city on Friday. It's "leadership from behind" you can count on. On Wednesday, press secretary Jay Carney acknowledged that Obama hadn't talked to Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper...

Barack Obama will fly to Colorado Springs Friday to tour the scene of the Waldo Canyon Fire, which continues to ravage homes and forest on the edge of Colorado’s second most populous city. ... Politically, the fire offers Obama a chance to be on the ground in a key swing state assuming the responsibilities of actually being President. Further, with the Supreme Court set to issue its ruling on the Affordable Care Act on Thursday, traveling to the fire lines on Friday offers the President an opportunity to attempt to turn the page should the Court rule part or all...

Among the Colorado wildfires drawing national attention today, the Waldo Canyon fire in Colorado Springs poses an immediate threat to the Navigators’ Glen Eyrie Conference Center and Eagle Lake Camp properties. The blaze...was only at 5 percent containment... Hundreds of workers are currently on the ground battling the blaze, which has burned down an Eagle Lake tent platform and come dangerously close to its barn, auto shop, and maintenance director’s home. “They’ve been praying God would raise walls of protection around the camp,” said Melissa Anderson, a 24-year-old Glen Eyrie resident and friend of Eagle Lake’s maintenance directors. “Apparently, the...

Green agenda targets slurry bombers As fire rages out of control on the edge of Colorado Springs, threatening lives and property, it is time we listen to those who have warned us about the negative effect environmentalists and President Barack Obama have had on the federal government’s ability to fight fires. Much of what’s burning is the Pike National Forest, which is federal property. Yet it took almost three days to get federal fire fighting aircraft off the ground to begin dumping meaningful loads of slurry to slow the fire’s growth. Because the Forest Service has a shortage of planes,...

This is the Waldo Canyon fire. Winds grew to 65mph this afternoon and the fire went over the fire-breaks. The Air Force Academy and surrounding neighborhood have been evacuated. Interstare I-25 has been closed north of Colorado SPrings in order to allow local people use the highway to evacuate.

A fast-growing wildfire in Colorado forced 11,000 people from their homes at least briefly on Sunday and threatened popular summer camping grounds beneath Pikes Peak, whose vistas helped inspire the patriotic tune "America the Beautiful." Live summit video from the 14,115-foot (4,302-metre) peak showed plumes of dark smoke billowing in the air, and a cog railway that ferries tourists up the side of the famous mountain was shut down because of the wildfires.

Some of the wildfires scorching the West this year were sparked by unusual culprits: Gun owners. Or, more specifically, gun shooters. As with the Dump fire in Utah, which flared hard enough on Friday to force the evacuation of 1,500 homes and 9,000 people, nearly two dozen conflagrations, officials say, have started accidentally by careless target shooters whose bullet sparks touch off dried-up pinon and wild grasses. “Now is not a good time to take your gun outside and start shooting in cheat grass that’s tinder dry,” Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said Friday. While authorities can ban certain fire-related activities...

We, perhaps, will never be able to reckon the entire extent to which the Environmentally ill and the EPA have caused the loss of life, limb, and monetary resources due to their obsessive love for Gaia, their Mother Earth. Frankly, I think they have done more harm to their Ma, than we could ever guess.New Mexico, as well as other western states, have been the latest victims of an out of control environmental policy as directed by out of control Democrats, especially in the Obama administration as of late. As Spain goes broke from going solar, as Obama works toward...

As four separate wildfires devour the state of Arizona-burning more than 17,500 acres at last count-it’s instructive to look at how our government has handled its investigation into the two enormous ones which blazed a path of destruction across the state in 2011. According to the Arizona Daily Star, both the Horseshoe 2 and the Monument Fire were caused by humans, which in the case of national forests invariably means illegal aliens and/or Mexican narco-traffickers nesting within wilderness cordoned off from American citizens. The tragedy, which should elicit anger and frustration in anyone concerned about the environment and the lives...

Al-Qaida magazine urges terrorists to set wildfires in MontanaMay 04, 2012 5:53 am • By GWEN FLORIO Terrorists who want to strike fear in the hearts of Americans would do well to set wildfires in Montana, al-Qaida advises in the most recent issue of its English-language magazine, Inspire. “It is difficult to choose a better place other than in the valleys of Montana where the population increases rapidly,” Inspire’s “AQ Chef” columnist writes. The magazine disappeared for a while after its founders, Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, were killed last year in a U.S. missile strike. But it recently reappeared...

Illegal immigrants started nearly 40 percent of human-caused wildfires along the Arizona and Mexico border between 2006 and 2010, according to a new government report that backs up claims state lawmakers made during this year’s catastrophic blazes. That number even may be understated - the report by the Government Accountability Office said federal land agencies often violate their own policies by not trying to investigate the origins of such fires. Of the 422 human-caused fires, just 77 were investigated, and of those 30 were found to have been ignited by illegal border crosses. Illegal immigration also makes battling the fires...

Obama cracks jokes about devastating Texas wildfires You know, beneath the cool exterior of the basketball-playing hipster president, behind the facade of the partisan class warrior, there lurks a core truth — Barack Obama is a jackass: While at a highdollar fundraiser San Jose, California, President Obama ridiculed Rick Perry. “You’ve got a governor whose state is on fire denying climate change.” Obama said to laughter and applause, and added, “No, no, it’s true!”

BASTROP, Texas – The number of homes destroyed by a Texas wildfire has risen to 1,554 and is expected to further increase as firefighters enter more areas where the blaze has been extinguished, officials said Sunday. Seventeen people remain unaccounted for.

Did Perry Slash the Volunteer Fire Fighter Budget? By Katrina Trinko September 07, 2011 Talking to MNSBC host Larry O’Donnell last night, former Perry opponent Jim Hightower accused Rick Perry of making draconian cuts to the volunteer fire fighter budget — no small accusation, considering the wildfires in Texas.  “Perry with his Republican supermajority in the legislature managed to slash the budget of the volunteer fire departments in our state by 75 percent in the last legislative session. We don’t have firefighters enough to come to fight these fires. People’s homes are burning down because of his failure,” Hightower said....

According to KVUE-TV, the state of Texas, under Gov. Rick Perry, cut state funding for the volunteer fire departments that protect most of the state from wildfires. Firefighters have actually been dipping into their own pockets to fight fires. Volunteer departments that were already facing financial strain had their funding cut from $30 million to $7 million. There are 879 volunteer fire departments in Texas; 114 are paid fire departments, while 187 departments are a combination of volunteer and paid. At a press conference Monday, Perry promised to seek federal disaster relief and said that FEMA would be in the...