#aerial-firefighting

#aerial-firefighting

According to the Forest Service, these changes are taking place as part of an effort to 'unify research priorities, accelerate the application of science to management decisions, and reduce administrative duplication.'

Emergency crews responded around 9:05 a.m. to the Department of Fire Services Firefighting Academy facility, where a person had been reportedly injured in a fall.

The Trump Administration's sweeping changes to the Forest Service, which operates under the Department of Agriculture, represent a gutting of an agency that has been a stable fact of life for over a century.

Air Force combat search-and-rescue, also known as CSAR, is the military's force dedicated to rescuing downed aircrew. Combat search-and-rescue missions are dangerous under the best of conditions, ideally on dark nights with no moonlight.

"This fire was very quickly identified as suspicious in nature," said Deputy Chief Mike Wedell. "There was a subject of interest identified very early on in the incident. That subject has been arrested."

San Jose fire officials warned that lithium-ion batteries are highly toxic when ablaze due to 'highly irritating gases' like carbon monoxide.

FireDrone is an aerogel-covered that can help firefighters in rescue missions by surveying for victims inside burning buildings. The assistive device aims to be the 'flying eye' in extreme environments so humans can be sure of who are and what is inside a site before going in. The FireDrone flying machine resembles a small quadcopter with its four arms and spinning propellers, but unlike regular drones, the parts of the device are built to survive high temperatures.

What I observed was not simply a difficult fire under extreme conditions, Butler said. It was the predictable outcome of a breakdown in leadership, preparedness and command discipline. Firefighters were forced to improvise without adequate resources, unified command or consistent safety oversight. This was not a failure of effort by firefighters. It was a failure of leadership above them.

I don't think there's really any benefit to me

A week later, powerful Santa Ana winds arrived, picked up some bits of rubber from one of the tractor's scorched tires and carried them over the containment area into dry vegetation, bringing the fire back to life, according to investigators. The subsequent blaze, the Mountain fire, burned nearly 20,000 acres and destroyed roughly 250 homes and structures in Camarillo Hills and nearby communities in western Ventura County.

One year ago, Nancy Ward, then the director of the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES), petitioned the Federal Emergency Management Agency to spearhead the cleanup of toxic ash and fire debris cloaking more than 12,000 homes across Los Angeles County. Although Ward's decision ensured the federal government would assume the bulk of disaster costs, it came with a major trade off.

"Fire-hardened homes are the future of the state of California," said El Dorado County Supervisor George Turnboo.