Current Fires
Newhall Fire: Valencia, CA
A 2-3 acre fire was reported around 7:15 a.m. near Newhall Ranch Road and Copper Hill Drive in Valencia, California on April 15th. The fire grew to 33 […]
RedZone Insights
Category: Fire Fighting
Current Fires
350 Complex burns another 50k+ acres in Oklahoma
[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”] Another round of major wildfires struck Tuesday, April 5th, with elevated fire weather conditions again affecting Oklahoma. The largest of the several reported was […]
Education
History of Women in Firefighting
Women have been firefighters for over 200 years. The first woman firefighter was Molly Williams, who was a slave in New York City and became a member of […]
Current Fires
Powerline Fire in Big Bend National Park nearing full containment
A wildland fire started in Big Bend National Park, Texas, around 5:00 PM on Monday, February 1st, when heavy winds caused a power line to fall. The fire […]
Education
Fuel Reduction Practices and Purpose
The practice of hazardous fuel reduction is most often associated with moderating the flammable vegetation around the defensible space of individual homes and communities. But this proactive approach to fighting wildland fire […]
Education
Smoke Color Can Depict Fuel Type
Smoke is made up of particulates, aerosols and gases, and identifying the characteristics of each in a given smoke plume can be helpful when fighting fires. Reading smoke can tell a firefighter what […]
Current Fires
2015 Wildfire Acreage Tops 10 Million for the First Time
2015 was a significant year for wildfires with the total acreage cresting 10 million for the first time on record. To put it in perspective, 10 million acres […]
Education
Wildfire 101: Lightning Activity Level (LAL)
The Lightning Activity Level (LAL) is a measurement of cloud-to-ground lightning activity observed (or forecasted to occur) within a 30 mile radius of an observation site. The […]
Education
Wildfire 101: Ignition
Since 2001, each wildfire season has averaged almost 73,000 ignitions and over 6.5 million acres burned in the U.S. Interestingly, the vast majority of these ignitions are human-caused, […]
Education
NASA’s JPL announces plan for more advanced wildfire detection by 2018
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has been refining a concept first proposed in 2011 for a network of space-based sensors called FireSat that would revolutionize the monitoring coverage of wildfires […]
