Tag Archives: wildfires

The Wall Street Journal reports: PG&E Corp. said it will seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, a day after the company’s CEO stepped down over the financial fallout spurred by the utility’s role in helping spark the California wildfires. The company and its wholly owned subsidiary, Pacific Gas & Electric Co., said they plan to file a petition on or around …

USA Today reports: President Donald Trump said in a Wednesday tweet that he is cutting off federal money to fight California wildfires, claiming the money is being wasted. State officials have accused Trump of playing politics with the California wildfires, and said he does not understand the issues involved in fighting fires. Trump’s declaration comes as he takes political heat …

Reuters reports: California utility company PG&E Corp is exploring filing some or all of its business for bankruptcy protection as it faces billions of dollars in liabilities related to fatal wildfires in 2018 and 2017, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. The company is considering the move as a contingency, in part because it could soon take a …

The Arizona Daily Star reports: The Sawmill Fire is shown erupting from an exploding target — with blue smoke curling off the fire’s fringes — in a video just obtained by the Arizona Daily Star. The 49-second video clearly shows the fire starting in yellow grassland near a stand of mesquite trees from the exploding target on state land in …

Via Breitbart: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke backed President Donald Trump on the years of forest mismanagement that led to the California fires as Zinke joined Breitbart News Sunday radio with host Amanda House. “Forests need active management,” he went on speaking of beetle kills and drought. “The amount of fuel in the forest is at historic highs.” He said “radical …

ITV News reports: People in Finland have been left bemused after Donald Trump said the country’s use of “raking” techniques helped prevent forest fires. In an interview following Mr Trump’s comments, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö said he did not recall mentioning raking to the US leader. The comments prompted many Fins to post on social media mocking the idea that …

The San Jose Mercury News reports: President Trump’s visit Saturday to the fire-ravaged California town of Paradise seemed to be going fine, until he began explaining his understanding of forest policy. Apparently, California needs to buy more rakes. “You gotta take care of the floors. You know the floors of the forest, very important,” Trump told reporters, as Gov. Jerry …

The Associated Press reports: At least 63 people are now dead from a Northern California wildfire, and officials say they have a missing persons list with 631 names on it in an ever-evolving accounting of the victims of the nation’s deadliest wildfire in a century. The high number of missing people probably includes some who fled the blaze and don’t …

The New York Times reports: It is a measure of how frequent and deadly wildfires have become in California that identifying badly burned remains has become an area of expertise. Once again cadaver dogs have been summoned, forensic dental experts will follow and coroners and anthropologists are using their experience from previous wildfires to locate the victims. At least 48 …

ABC News reports: President Donald Trump woke up in Paris on Saturday in the mood to make threats toward California as it deals with deadly wildfires in Northern California and hundreds of smoldering homes in Southern California. In an angry tweet, the president threatened to pull federal funding for the state if nothing is done to “remedy” the situation. Trump …

Forbes reports: Residents of the city of Malibu, Calif. are under mandatory evacuation orders Friday as the Woolsley Fire heads for populated areas along the Pacific Coast Highway (aka U.S. Route 101) and the Pacific Ocean. The Woolsey Fire jumped the 101 freeway early Friday as one of three massive wildfires that ignited in the Golden State in just the …

The Sacramento Bee reports: An uncontrolled wildfire raced across the Butte County community of Paradise Thursday afternoon, destroying a large swath of downtown and sending residents fleeing on foot past burning homes, businesses and a local church. “The whole town’s on fire,” said Scott Lotter, a town councilman who evacuated with his family. “It’s pretty grim.” By Thursday evening, the …

NBC News reports: A Border Patrol agent pleaded guilty to starting an Arizona wildfire by shooting a rifle at a target intended to reveal the gender of his baby. Dennis Dickey, 37, of Tucson, Arizona, pleaded guilty Friday to causing the Sawmill Fire, which torched swaths of Coronado National Forest, federal land administered by the U.S. Forest Service, and caused …

NBC News reports: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s claim that “environmental terrorist groups” created the conditions that enabled California’s wildfires triggered substantial blowback from environmental groups, who chastised the Trump administration official for downplaying the role of climate change in the blazes. Zinke said in a radio interview with Breitbart News that environmental extremists were preventing the government from properly managing …

The Huffington Post reports: A man arrested on Tuesday in connection with a devastating wildfire in Southern California is a conspiracy theorist who posted videos about satanic rituals and QAnon. “This place is going to burn,” Forrest Clark, 51, allegedly texted a volunteer fire chief two weeks before an inferno enveloped Orange County, burning nearly 20,000 acres and destroying 12 …

The Los Angeles Times reports: The Mendocino Complex fire is now the largest wildfire in modern California history, scorching more than 283,000 acres and frustrating firefighters as it continues to leap across natural and man-made barriers in Lake County. The Ranch and River fires, which make up the complex fire, had grown to 283,800 acres as of Monday evening, according …

Newsweek reports: President Donald Trump has blamed environmental laws for the California wildfires raging through the state. In a tweet on Sunday, the president said the laws were not allowing water to be properly used—suggesting that was the reason behind the devastating fires that have scorched more than 290,000 acres (117,300 hectares) of land and left at least seven people …

The San Francisco Chronicle reports: As more than a dozen major fires roar across the state of California, some of them have burned so fiercely that they’re creating their own weather systems. Massive pyrocumulus clouds have formed over the Carr, Ferguson, Cranston and Mendocino Complex fires burning in four different parts of the state (Shasta County, near Yosemite, Riverside County, …

The Daily Beast reports: NBC News reported Wednesday morning that the Los Angeles wildfires ravaging the area near Bel-Air have now begun to consume Rupert Murdoch’s property. “This is the $30-million house and vineyard property that is owned by Rupert Murdoch,” NBC Los Angeles reported on the latest victim of the 125-acre Skirball fire. “And it looks like it is …

NBC News reports: Wildfires continued to explode across Southern California on Wednesday as dry conditions and roaring winds turned the region into a tinderbox, forcing thousands to evacuate. The Thomas Fire, as the blaze has been dubbed, put approximately 50,000 residents under a mandatory evacuation and burned more than 55,000 acres in the Ventura County area with no containment after …