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@LaneSheriffOR has arrested 44 year old Jonathan Maas in connection with a brush fire (~5ft in diameter) set in the Dexter area on 9/9/20. Thank you to the kind folks who spotted the fire and extinguished it! (This incident is NOT related to the Holiday Farm/McK fire.)

With at least 27 people killed and 18 million acres incinerated as of last week, the worst bushfire season Australia has seen in decades is a bad one, no doubt about it.   Reproduced with permission of the Western Australian Land Information Authority, the FireWatch map below shows the location of individual fires as of Jan. 14, 2020.  Disclaimer: The size of the icons on the map relates to the location of the fire and not to the size of the fire on the ground.  Any opinions expressed herein are mine and were not arrived at in consultation with the Western Australian...

Australian fire-lighters come in six colors — yellow, black, white, blood red, dark green, and light green. All are relevant to bushfires and forest management. "Yellow" is the fire-lighter that has been with us forever. It is the yellow flash of lightning, which has always ignited the Australian bush. We're dreaming to think we can lock yellow fire out of parks, forests, and heritage areas. But good forest management can reduce the ferocity and destruction of lightning-strike fires. "Black" fire-lighters came with the first Australians. Without matches or tinder boxes, they probably captured the fire genie from a lightning fire....

Aboriginal people had a deep knowledge of the land, said historian Bill Gammage, an emeritus professor at Australian National University who studies Australian and Aboriginal history. They can feel the grass and know if it would burn well; they knew what types of fires to burn for what types of land, how long to burn, and how frequently. Aboriginal techniques are based in part on fire prevention: ridding the land of fuel, like debris, scrub, undergrowth and certain grasses. The fuel alights easily, which allows for more intense flames that are harder to fight. The Aboriginal people would set small-scale...

Only about 1 per cent of the land burnt in NSW this bushfire season can be officially attributed to arson, and it is even less in Victoria, the ABC can reveal. The world has been shocked by the scenes of devastation as the unprecedented destruction of Australia's horror bushfire season rages on. The disaster has sparked significant media speculation that many of the blazes were deliberately lit. While it is true firebugs remain a legitimate and serious threat, we crunched the numbers provided by police and fire authorities around the country. The results might surprise you. NSW Rural Fire Service...

Twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Monday wrongly attributed Australia’s devastating bushfires to climate change — an assertion that follows the arrests of 183 people accused of setting fires over the past few months. Australia has been ravaged by deadly bushfires in recent weeks, claiming the lives of at least 25 people and millions of animals across the region. Climate change activists have been quick to attribute the devastation to anthropogenic climate change.

These heartbreaking photos show the moment a kangaroo begs for help in the aftermath of the devastating Australian bushfires. The marsupial suffered huge burns to its body before a teenager drenched it with water and gave it a drink. The stricken animal is one of billions caught up in Australia’s worst bushfires, which continue to burn out of control across an area more than a third of the size of England.

The latest word from Iraq is that there's been another airstrike early Saturday.... But the story from the Iraqi group targeted is that its leaders were not killed in the attack..... "The assassination of an Iraqi military commander in an official post is an aggression against the country of Iraq, its state, its government and its people" The words of the Prime Minister of Iraq Adil Abdul Mahdi in describing the early Friday morning drone strike near Baghdad International Airport that killed Iranian Quds Force commander Qaesm Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, commander of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units.... The situation...

Kim Jong-un speaks saying "the world will witness a new strategic weapon' from North Korea 'in the near future' more later on.... Part of the alert brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division deploying to Kuwait tonight, some 750 US soldiers. More to follow in the coming days..... This after thousands of protesters in Iraq attacking and some entering the US Embassy grounds in Baghdad forcing US forces to disperse them with tear gas today. The protesters angered by the US air strikes in Iraq and Syria Sunday against an Iranian backed militia group.... Chelsea Manning, who gave Wikileaks documents on...

THOUSANDS of people who were warned to flee an Aussie town are trapped on the beach ready to jump into the sea to escape the deadly bushfires. Around 4,000 people are still in Mallacoota, in Victoria in the south east of the country which is battling terrifying infernos sparked by a record-breaking 40C heatwave, authorities said.

A giant bushfire on the edge of Sydney, which has blanketed the city in smoke causing a spike in respiratory illnesses and the cancellation of outdoor sports, will take weeks to control but will not be extinguished without heavy rains, firefighters said. housands of weary firefighters, who have been battling bushfires for a month, were on Saturday fighting nearly 100 blazes in New South Wales state. The mega fire north of Sydney, Australia’s largest city, was created on Friday when several fires merged and was now burning across 335,000 hectares (830,000 acres). “We need flooding rain to put these fires...

Rugby player Israel Folau has drawn anger for linking Australia's bushfire crisis to the nation's same-sex marriage and abortion laws. Folau, who was sacked by Australia in May for making anti-gay remarks on social media, described the fires as a "little taste of God's judgement". Six people have died since last month in blazes raging in eastern Australia. Prime Minister Scott Morrison condemned Folau's remarks as "appallingly insensitive". "He is a free citizen, he can say whatever he likes but that doesn't mean he can't have regard to the grievance [and] offence this would have caused to the people whose...

The massive bushfires raging across Australia are expected to flare up again as temperatures rise in coming days. So far, four people have died from the fires, which are feeding off drought-stricken farmland and bush. Conditions improved on Friday but crews were still battling about 120 blazes across New South Wales and Queensland. And authorities have warned that a bank of hot air is expected to sweep across the country, escalating the fires. Temperatures across Western Australia are predicted to hit mid-40Cs at the weekend. The fires have razed about 300 homes, and burnt through over 1 million hectares of...

Spark aimed at saving lives. Australia's peak science and research organisation today released a homegrown software tool to help emergency services predict the severity and spread of destructive bushfires. The CSIRO's Spark tool gathers geospatial data on topography, vegetation, humidity and wind patterns from Landsat satellites, and combines it with data provided by fire authorities to give an accurate prediction of fire behaviour. The organisation expects Spark will not only help emergency services save lives, but also reduce the financial burden of bushfires. Spark should also allow emergency services to better manage infrastructure planning, fire fighting resource allocation and deployment,...

All of Victoria's bushfires have now been contained. Emergency services said the Wilsons Promontory Cathedral fire was finally contained at 10am (AEDT) today, ending the last major bushfire that had been threatening Victoria since Black Saturday. Australia's worst natural disaster has claimed the lives of 210 Victorians, more than 2000 homes and burnt 421,670 hectares of public and private land since starting on February 7. Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) state duty officer Dennis Ward acknowledged the combined firefighting effort of the DSE and Country Fire Authority (CFA) in containing the Wilsons Promontory bushfire. A lightning strike sparked the...

VICTORIA'S alpine region has recorded snowfall in the early hours of today, just days after the state was on extreme fire alert. Victorian Bureau of Meteorology duty forecaster Michael Halfpenny said with temperatures reaching a low of minus two degrees at Mount Hotham this morning, slight snowfall would have been seen. "There would have been a few flecks this morning with a few possible showers, but it was not likely to settle," he said. Mt Hotham recorded 1.2 mm of snow with temperatures below zero degrees from about 2am to 10.30am, Mr Halfpenny said. Mount Hotham Skiing Company senior marketing...

AFTER the loss of more than 200 lives and almost a month of fear and grief, the Black Saturday bushfires have at last been tamed and the dark crisis is over. But it has taken nature to overcome the overwhelming. Cooler weather offers enormous relief for communities and firefighters. While four major fires remain burning, the forecasts for the next few weeks allowed firefighters breathing room, Emergency Services Commissioner Bruce Esplin said today. "We see a very bright light at the end of the tunnel now, we see that this weather is over," he said. "The pressure has been in...

MORE than 200 schools and 146 child centres will close tomorrow as Victoria prepares for a scorcher tomorrow. Schools and kindergartens in high risk fire areas including the Otways, Grampians, Mallee, Gippsland and Yarra Valley will close amid concerns for student safety. One hundred and ninety government schools, 178 kindergatens and child care centres, 16 Catholic schools and at least 17 non-catholic private schools will close tomorrow as the bushfire risk increases. The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development cited travel safety concerns, possible water contamination and the threat of continuing or new fires as reasons for the closures....

A PERMANENT shrine will be built to commemorate the victims and heroes of the Black Saturday bushfires. As the nation pauses today to pay its respects to those who died in the Victoria fires, the Brumby and Rudd governments will announce a $2.5 million fund for memorials to pay tribute to those who perished. The cash will include grants of up to $200,000 for fire-ravaged communities to build memorials, monuments or plaques in their towns, the Sunday Herald Sun reports. The governments also plan to build a major fire victims' shrine of remembrance, either off St Kilda Rd, in Fitzroy...

The editor for the Australian Conservative says the tragic brush fires in Australia can be partly blamed on the environmentalists or "greenies." One of the worst brush fires in decades has ravished parts of Victoria, Australia. Authorities say more than 1,800 homes have been destroyed as well as over 150 lives lost and over 1,000 square miles of land scorched. Authorities have even designated some destroyed towns as crime scenes and suspect that arsonists have started some of the fires. (See related video) Australian Conservative editor John Styles says the Green Party is blaming the fires on so-called manmade global...