Bosbranden 2008: Californië

best beangstigend.

Is het weer zover Elk jaar fikt daar heel wat bos af...dat er nog bomen staan.

Brush fires in Florida force residents to flee homes

MALABAR, Fla. — Brush fires forced residents to flee more than 500 homes in central Florida on Sunday and closed a major interstate, authorities said.

A fire in Volusia County has burned approximately 1,900 acres and caused road closures and home evacuations, state Division of Forestry spokesman Timber Weller said.

About 400 homes in the neighborhood near Daytona Beach were under a mandatory evacuation order and 200 more homes were under a voluntary order.

Weller said windy, dry conditions were challenging the fire crews.

"Control is extremely difficult, and there's basically several small subdivisions in the area and fires burning, in some cases, very close to the homes," Weller said.

A fire near Cocoa had burned more than 100 acres and forced evacuations of about 100 to 200 homes, Brevard County Fire and Rescue spokesman Orlando Dominguez said.

Heavy smoke from another fire in the Brevard community of Malabar forced authorities to close a 25 mile stretch of Interstate 95, the major East Coast corridor.

Lots of pictures --> Click here

Ik sta er altijd een beetje van te kijken dat men grote branden,met al die technologische kennis en materieel die wij hebben, nog steeds niet de baas kan. ongelofelijk.

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Dorpen geëvacueerd wegens bosbrand Cyprus

NICOSIA - Zes dorpen in het zuiden van Cyprus zijn woensdag geëvacueerd onder de dreiging van een in de ochtend ontstane bosbrand. Het vuur grijpt door een sterke wind snel om zich heen. Honderden brandweerlieden proberen de vuurzee onder bedwang te krijgen.

De Britse militaire basis op Cyprus helpt de Cypriotische brandweer met helikopters. Griekenland heeft een blusvliegtuig gestuurd. De brandweer poogt het vuur bij de grote steden Larnaca en Limassol vandaan te houden.

Het is nog niet duidelijk hoe de brand is ontstaan. Cyprus kampt met de ergste droogte sinds jaren. Het eiland besloot recent drinkwater te importeren uit Griekenland.

Athene bedreigd door bosbranden

De brand, op de berg Hymettos, beweegt zich van Athene af naar het noorden en bedreigt geen huizen. Wel raakte een belangrijke elektriciteitsleiding door de brand beschadigd, waardoor het centrum en enkele andere wijken van Athene meer dan een uur zonder stroom kwamen te zitten.

De brandweer zei dat acht vliegtuigen en drie helikopters zijn ingezet bij het blussen van de brand, die uitbrak in Glyka Nera, een voorstad op ongeveer twintig kilometer ten oosten van Athene.

De burgemeester van Glyka Nera zei te geloven dat het vuur is aangestoken. Hij zei dat illegale projectontwikkelaars in het verleden al vaak brand in zijn gemeente hebben gesticht om grond vrij te maken voor hun bouwprojecten. "Dit keer hebben ze de berg platgebrand."



De brandweer zei dat het blussen van het vuur op de Hymettus moeite kost, omdat het dicht bos is dat in brand staat. Branden op het nabijgelegen eiland Aegina en bij Agios Stephanos, ten noorden van Athene, zijn inmiddels bedwongen, zei een woordvoerder.

Vorige zomer kampte Griekenland met verwoestende bosbranden. Bij branden op de Peloponnesos kwamen 66 mensen om en ten noorden van Athene ging een natuurreservaat in vlammen op. Alleen al in augustus ging tweehonderdduizend hectare bos, gewassen en olijfgaarden verloren.





Bron:De Pers

The Heat Is On: Calif. Wildfire Destroys 40 Homes, Threatens Thousands

BIG SUR, Calif. — A wind-stoked wildfire northeast of Sacramento burned dozens of homes Tuesday and has forced thousands of fire-weary residents to flee, state officials said.

About 40 homes in the rural Butte County community of Concow were destroyed after erratic winds blew embers across fire containment lines, said Todd Simmons, a California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman.

Firefighters went door to door early Tuesday to evacuate 800 to 1,000 residents from Concow and Yankee Hill, about 85 miles north of Sacramento. Residents of 3,200 homes were ordered to evacuate in nearby Paradise, where wildfire destroyed 74 homes last month

"Right now we're battling the weather and the erratic winds," Simmons said. "Whatever the winds are doing, that's pretty much what the fire's going to do."

Winds as high as 30 mph fanned the blaze, one of about 30 lightning-sparked wildfires in the county that have charred 47,000 acres in recent weeks.

Firefighters were also struggling against a sudden drop in humidity and a 10-degree spike in temperature as a heat wave forecast to linger until the weekend grips much of the state.

The Butte County complex of fires was about 40 percent contained Tuesday night, officials said.

Fire crews across the state have been straining to cover hundreds of active California wildfires, many of which were ignited by a lightning storm more than two weeks ago.

A blaze threatening the small coastal community of Big Sur let up just enough to allow hundreds of people to check on their homes Tuesday. At least 23 homes and 25 other structures have been destroyed in Big Sur as flames marched over more than 125 square miles of land since June 21.

Although that fire is far from controlled — the rugged terrain has kept containment at 18 percent into the fire's third week — authorities lifted the mandatory evacuation order issued for 25 miles of the 31-mile stretch along the Pacific Coast Highway that had been closed.

Many of the 1,500 evacuated residents of Big Sur headed home Tuesday morning through smoke and ash, anxious to gauge the damage.

Dena Angelique, 34, unloaded hastily packed bags of books, photos, art supplies and clothes from the back of her dusty Toyota 4Runner after a week away from her home.

She was relieved to find the fire had stopped within 100 yards of her home, though it had charred the nearby mountainside. She wasn't sure how long she'd stay; smoke and ashes still floated among the blackened remains of oak and pine, burning her throat.

"It was so insane watching the whole hillside burning," she said. "It's so nice to come back and know that we're safer here now."

Officials, however, cautioned that the lifted evacuation orders did not mean conditions had drastically improved.

A fire in the Los Padres National Forest near Santa Barbara grew slightly to 9,785 acres, or about 15 square miles, but the number of homes threatened dropped sharply Tuesday as crews secured fire lines near populated areas.

The blaze continues to threaten about 250 homes, down from a peak of more than 3,000. The fire is 55 percent contained, said U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Debbie Becker.

"It's going according to plan," Becker said "They've really got a good hold on this fire but there's still a lot of potential to get worse. ... It's a fuel-driven fire and there's still a lot of fuel out there."

Marine fog, relatively calm winds and moderate temperatures from Tuesday morning helped firefighting efforts on the lower flanks of the Santa Ynez Mountains, where helicopter water drops doused flames in the rugged canyons, Becker said.

Temperatures on Wednesday and Thursday are expected to spike into the 90s, and fire officials worry that the flames will reach above 1,300 feet where the brush is very dry, Becker said.

About a dozen homes along the ridgeline overlooking the Pacific Ocean remain under a mandatory evacuation order.

In some parts of California's Central Valley, temperatures were forecast to climb close to 110 degrees Tuesday. The agency that monitors the state's power grid said peak energy demand could approach the record set in July 2006, and it asked customers to reduce their late-afternoon power consumption.

The expected heat wave raised not only the fire danger, but also concerns about heat illness among firefighters worn down by the long fight against blazes that have consumed more than 985 square miles in California since late June.

"We do have a lot of fatigue because of the low numbers of resources in the state," said Thom Walsh, a Forest Service resource unit leader.

Crews took rest breaks in refrigerated trailers with bunk beds before returning to the field, but heat stroke was a worry, Walsh said. (Bron: FOX News)

en dan is het nu nog allemaal peuleschil vergeleken met hoe het er was voordat er mensen kwamen:

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The amount of land burned in today's far more urbanized and farmed California pales against the acreage consumed historically, before Euro-American settlements, according to University of California, Berkeley, environmental researchers.

The scientists estimated that an average 4.4 million acres burned annually in California before 1800, compared with an average 250,000 acres a year in the last five decades, 1950 through 2000.

bron

Het lijkt wel alsof het nooit regent in zuidelijk Californië

SAN FRANCISCO — A large wildfire in a national forest spread farther away from the storied coastal town of Big Sur on Monday but forced residents of another community to stay away from their homes for a third day.

Evacuation orders first issued Saturday morning remained in place for more than 200 homes in the rural Cachagua community northeast of Big Sur. The blaze, which already has charred 187 square miles and destroyed 27 homes, was about 1 1/2 miles from the area, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

Firefighters had a strong fire line in the Los Padres National Forest there that they expected to hold, keeping the flames from reaching the more populated Carmel Valley, said Tacy Skinner, a Forest Service spokeswoman.

On the southwest border of the blaze, which was more than 60 percent contained, firefighters were in cleanup mode Monday. The scenic Pacific Coast Highway fully reopened ahead of schedule a day earlier, and residents and business owners in Big Sur — a tourist area historically popular with writers and artists — began settling back in after three weeks of evacuations.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said 288 blazes were still burning around the state, most of them in the mountains ringing the northern edge of the Central Valley.

So far this fire season, flames have blackened nearly 1,300 square miles and destroyed about 100 homes across California. Most of the blazes were sparked by a June 21 lightning storm across the northern part of the state.

The current complex of fires is "the largest single fire event in history for California," said Kelly Houston, spokesman for the Governor's Office of Emergency Services.

The previous record was set in October 2003, when wildfires scorched more than 1,155 square miles, Houston said. State record-keeping on wildfires began in 1936.

The state defines a "fire event" as a group of blazes within the same location or time period.

While the October 2003 fires killed 24 people and destroyed more than 3,600 homes, Houston said officials point to acreage when quantifying wildfires, to point to the strain on firefighting resources.



On Monday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger toured the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, where he credited the use of NASA-developed technology for saving lives last week as fires raged in Butte County.

An unmanned drone using infrared technology discovered a hot flare-up in a canyon near the town of Paradise, prompting evacuation orders for 10,000 people. Thick smoke and heat had prevented other aircraft from patrolling the area.

"This unmanned plane is a true life-saver. But even though we get all this terrific help, California needs more resources; there's no two ways about it," Schwarzenegger said as he pushed an initiative to charge homeowners a fee to pay for emergency response equipment.

Cooler weather around the state allowed officials to lift evacuation orders in the fire-ravaged towns of Paradise and Concow. The fires there, which burned 83 square miles and destroyed 50 homes in the area, weren't threatening any homes Monday, officials said.

"Things still seem to be looking pretty good. They are still making progress on it; I haven't heard of any problems today," said Kevin Colburn, a state fire department spokesman in Butte, adding that triple-digit temperatures that had been expected Monday never materialized. Highs were in the mid-90s, helping the firefight.

At least one person was found dead after the blaze swept through Concow.



A fire on the southern extension of the Los Padres forest near Santa Barbara County was 90 percent contained by Monday after charring more than 15 square miles, but 55 homes remained under an evacuation warning.

In Washington state, about 160 homes remained evacuated Monday north of Wenatchee, where two fires had burned nearly 23 square miles and were 60 percent contained.

quote:

Griekenland vecht weer tegen bosbranden

ATHENE - Een dag nadat de Griekse brandweer meer dan honderd branden had moeten blussen, hebben brandweerlieden woensdag opnieuw hun handen vol aan bosbranden rond de hoofdstad Athene.

Enkele tientallen mensen moesten hun huizen veertig kilometer ten noorden van Athene verlaten omdat het vuur hun dorp bedreigde.

De brandweer gebruikte blusvliegtuigen en helikopters en zette honderden brandweerlieden in om het vuur te bestrijden. Het gevaar voor nieuwe branden is groot door de hitte en de sterke wind.

Verwoestende bosbranden eisten vorig jaar tijdens de zomer meer dan zeventig mensenlevens. Natuurbeschermers vinden dat de Griekse regering te weinig heeft gedaan om een nieuwe ramp dit jaar te voorkomen.

Het topic van Griekenland over vorig jaar
Bosbranden Griekenland: 67 doden, 200.000 hectare

quote:

Mogelijk evacuatie toeristen op Rhodos

AMSTERDAM - De autoriteiten op het Griekse eiland Rhodos treffen voorbereidingen om meer dan tweeduizend toeristen te evacueren uit hotels die door een brand op het zuiden van het eiland worden bedreigd. De politie spreekt van een voorzorgsmaatregel.

Harde wind wakkerde vrijdag de brand aan die dinsdag op Rhodos uitbrak. Frankrijk, Italië en Cyprus zegden Griekenland hulp toe, in de vorm van blusvliegtuigen en -helikopters.

De brandweer kon vrijdag nog niet zeggen hoeveel schade er is aangericht. In het dorp Laerma kwam het vuur tot op vijftig meter van enkele woonhuizen.

Rook

De rookontwikkeling bij een brand op het zuidwestelijke schiereiland Peloponessos maakte vrijdag de afsluiting noodzakelijk van een drukke autoweg die de hoofdstad Athene met de westelijke havenstad Patras verbindt.

Ook het treinverkeer tussen de twee steden werd stilgelegd. In 2007 kwamen bij bosbranden in het zuidwesten van Griekenland meer dan zeventig mensen om het leven

Eerst een aardbeving en dan weer branden op rhodos

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2 Wildfires threaten LA

LOS ANGELES — Two huge wildfires driven by strong Santa Ana winds burned into neighborhoods near Los Angeles on Monday, forcing frantic evacuations on smoke- and traffic-choked highways, destroying homes and causing at least two deaths.

Around sunset, residents were warned to stay on alert during the night and winds more than 60 mph were forecast.

More than 1,000 firefighters and nine water-dropping aircraft battled the 4,700-acre Marek Fire at the northeast end of the San Fernando Valley, and the 5,000-acre Sesnon Fire at the west end.

Winds blew up to 45 mph with gusts reaching 70 mph at midday. They were forecast to diminish in the evening before roaring over 60 mph after 11 p.m.

Click to view photos | Continuous coverage from MyFoxLA.com.

"This fire has the real potential of moving from where it is now ... as far as Pacific Coast (Highway)," said Los Angeles County Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman.

Residents downwind were warned to remain alert into the night. "It can go from here to the ocean in a matter of two to three hours," said Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.

Wat een foto die eerste

Inderdaad... wel een hele mooie foto lijkt wel een film

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"This is just the beginning"
LOS ANGELES — Flames whirled dangerously close to homes Tuesday as gusty Santa Ana winds sent the biggest of southern California's wildfires flaring in hilly brushlands on Los Angeles' northern edge and along subdivisions to the west.

Firefighters with hoses guarded houses as helicopters unleashed loads of water on hot spots of the more than 20-square-mile blaze charring slopes above the San Fernando Valley communities of Porter Ranch and Granada Hills.

Flames then pushed west to the rolling grasslands of Ventura County and made runs toward Simi Valley neighborhoods of modern homes defended by a broad firebreak, helicopters, airplanes and ground crews.



The fire is one of three major blazes that have burned more than 34 square miles of Southern California, destroyed dozens of homes and forced thousands of people to evacuate their homes this week. One man died in the flames, and a motorist was killed in a crash as a fire neared a freeway.

Fifteen homes and 47 outbuildings were destroyed in the Porter Ranch area, and another six homes were damaged, said Los Angeles County fire Inspector Ron Haralson. Officials said the fire was 20 percent contained by 10 p.m. Tuesday, and evacuation orders for several neighborhoods, including large parts of Porter Ranch, were lifted.

"This was a preview of coming attractions," William Patzert, a climatologist at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge told the Los Angeles Times. "Now we're in a race with Mother Nature. What comes first? More Santa Anas or rain?"
This is just the beginning. We're 10% through the season," he said. "People forget that Santa Anas are normal, natural and part of the history of Southern California."

Ten 10 miles away, there was major progress against Los Angeles' other big wildfire.

A 7 1/2-square-mile blaze in the northeastern San Fernando Valley was 80 percent contained and some evacuees were allowed to go home. But people who lived in an area where 38 mobile homes were destroyed were not permitted to return.

en dan te bedenken dat men zo graag in LA wil wonen omdat een of andere Hollywoodster/Popster/Sport ster er ook woont. Niet alleen dat, heel LA ligt op zo een scheur en kan dus op elk moment verwoest worden door een aardbeving. Maarja, eigenwijs is men's eigen.

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Wildfire Erupts in Los Angeles, Shuts Down Major Freeway
LOS ANGELES — A wildfire was burning through grass and brush Thursday morning a few miles from the Getty Center museum in west Los Angeles, forcing the closure of the nearby San Diego Freeway, authorities said.



The fire started at about 12:50 a.m. and had burned at least 150 acres west of the freeway three hours later, Humphrey said. He said the fire was two miles from the Getty Center and more than a mile from the nearest homes.

All lanes of the San Diego Freeway were shut down in both directions through the Sepulveda Pass, the California Highway Patrol said.

No structures had burned and no one was injured, Humphrey said.

About 350 firefighters helped by eight water-dropping helicopters were taking on the blaze, Humphrey said.

Despite its quick growth, the winds that brought the fire's initial surge were diminisEruhing and firefighters were gaining ground.

"We're making significant progress," Humphrey said.

The blaze was moving south toward the Getty Center and Mt. St. Mary's College, but both were "well-protected by a large number of firefighters," Humphrey said.



Authorities told residents in the Brentwood area they may need to evacuate, and centers were set up at the American Jewish University and the Veteran's Administration Hospital in Westwood for any sick or elderly people who needed to evacuate.

BREAKING NEWS — A wind-driven brush fire destroyed as many as 100 homes Thursday in the hills of the wealthy Southern California coastal town of Montecito, forcing residents to flee what has long been a hideaway for the rich and famous.

Montecito fire spokeswoman Geri Ventura said she did not know exactly how many homes had burned, but television footage showed flames engulfing dozens of large multimillion-dollar houses. Ventura said about a quarter of the community of 10,000 people was evacuated and more could be moved if the fire spreads.

The fire broke out shortly before 6 p.m. and quickly spread through more than 300 acres in the foothills five miles south of Santa Barbara. Several fire departments were battling the flames as thick plumes of smoke hovered overhead.



"It looked like lava coming down a volcano," Leslie Hollis Lopez told The Associated Press as she gathered belongings from her house.

It was immediately not known whether any celebrities' homes had burned or whether anyone was injured.

One resident described the area as deserted.



"You can just hear the explosions ... of vehicles, homes," Michaelo Rosso told KCAL-TV as he prepared to leave his home. "It sounds like the Fourth of July out here."

Santa Barbara County officials said about 125 engines and three water-dropping helicopters were en route or at the scene. Firefighters faced wind gusts as high as 70 mph Thursday night. Gusts were expected to remain strong through early Friday, according to the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

The fire temporarily knocked out power to more than 20,000 homes in Santa Barbara, said Southern California Edison spokesman Paul Klein. He said only scattered pockets of homes were without power by late Thursday.



Bron + LiveCoverage

Zoals het er nu uitziet krijgen we in Victoria een seizoen met vergelijkbare plaatjes als hierboven.

Worst season since Ash Wednesday.

Deze is gefilmpt vanuit mijn huis.... dit is ongeveer 20km van het vuur. (Yorba Linda)

Het is wel vreselijk, zeker als het jouw huis is

Is het aangestoken ???

The DC-10 in action!

(vanaf 1:18 ongeveer)

quote:

800 homes destroyed



DIAMOND BAR, Calif. — More residents of Southern California were urged to leave their homes Sunday despite calming winds that allowed a major aerial attack on wildfires that have destroyed hundreds of homes and blanketed the region in smoke.

Fires burned in Los Angeles County, to the east in Riverside and Orange counties, and to the northwest in Santa Barbara County. More than 800 houses, mobile homes and apartments were destroyed by fires that have burned areas more than 34 square miles since breaking out Thursday.

No deaths have been reported, but police brought in trained dogs Sunday morning to search the rubble of a mobile home park where nearly 500 homes were destroyed. They didn't find any bodies after searching about a third of the homes.

"This has been a very tough few days for the people of Southern California," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said after touring damage.

"The fire has burned through that mobile home park so quickly, they were like matches," he said.

The smell of smoke pervaded metropolitan Los Angeles. Downtown skyscrapers were silhouettes in an opaque sky, and concerns about air quality forced organizers to cancel a marathon in suburban Pasadena where 8,000 runners had planned to participate.

Fierce Santa Ana winds that fanned the fires on Saturday weakened Sunday morning, allowing firefighters to set backfires to prevent flames from advancing to hillside neighborhoods. Air tankers swooped low over suburbs, red fire retardant billowing from their bellies as they painted defensive lines between brushlands and homes. Big helicopters shuttled back and forth on water drops.

The most threatening blaze had scorched more than 16 square miles in Orange and Riverside counties after erupting Saturday and shooting through subdivisions entwined with wilderness parklands. Multimillion-dollar homes were threatened in Diamond Bar in Los Angeles County as the out-of-control fire pushed northward.

Fire officials on Sunday morning ordered 1,400 more residents to evacuate, in addition to 26,500 who had already been told to leave.

Retired aerospace engineer Joe Gomez, who has lived in his palm-tree-lined Diamond Bar neighborhood for 45 years, stayed put despite being under a mandatory evacuation.

"I'm trying to use some logic here," said Gomez, 72, trying to gauge the direction of the wind and flames. "I don't think it's going to come down this way."

In the early morning, winds pushed flames dangerously close to a church and adjacent mobile home park in the Olinda Village area north of Yorba Linda, but firefighters were able to beat it back. Only one mobile home was lost. Bron