In its July issue, National Geographic examines the escalating fire risk throughout the Western United States, citing development in the WUI as well as climatic changes as the cause of fires that are ever-more dangerous.
Sponsored by the CFFJAC Commission to Recruit Women in the Fire Service, the Firefighter Recruitment Fair provides an up-close-and-personal look at the women and men who serve on the front lines to protect millions of Californians.
Before 2003, most of California's worst-case disaster scenarios revolved around earthquakes. But over the last five years, our state has increasingly become associated with another kind of disaster - catastrophic wildland fires.
According to CAL FIRE statistics, the 2008 Firestorm that ran from approximately June 11th, with the outbreak of the Humboldt Fire, through the end of July consumed more than one million acres - the most ever for a single state fire incident.
A few Southern California fire chiefs are responding to budget and weather concerns by trying to rethink long-standing public safety policies on ordering mass evacuations in a wildfire. The so-called "Stay and Defend" policy is drawing fire from labor and management.