Free Republic

What happened: Female firefighters taking part in a Women-in-Fire Training Exchange program—intended to promote "mental health and gender diversity and inclusion"—accidentally caused an "out of control" forest fire in Banff National Park. Residents in the surrounding areas were evacuated and several buildings were damaged on May 3 after the female firefighters initiated a prescribed burn that quickly escalated into an uncontrolled blaze. Context: Banff National Park is in Canada, where South American migrants have been fleeing to escape the lawless squalor of America's big cities. What they're saying: Days before the conference, local news outlets were celebrating the women's fire...

A spokesperson with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 5 told The Ohio Star on Monday that the Fire Chief of the East Palestine Fire Department was the individual who ordered the controlled burn following the catastrophic train derailment on February 3rd.“EPA did not order the controlled burn. The local fire chief was the incident commander who made the decision in consultation with Norfolk Southern, local law enforcement, and response officials from Ohio,” the EPA spokesperson told The Star.

A controlled burn occurring at Marine Corps Base Quantico Sunday afternoon near the Stafford and Fauquier county line is causing moderate to heavy smoke conditions in Prince William County and other areas of Northern Virginia, Maryland and D.C. The U.S. Forest Service is conducting the controlled burn of about 2,000 acres in the area. Individuals with respiratory illnesses or medical conditions that are aggravated by smoke should remain indoors until smoke conditions clear, according to the Prince William County Police Department. The controlled burn is expected to last two days. The controlled burn appears to have caught local jurisdictions off...

The Army's controlled burn has jumped past its containment line and is now burning a 72-acre parcel south of where it was supposed to stay. The fire is still within the Army's secondary containment line but has required York School's students and faculty to be evacuated... The fire is the latest in a long series of controlled burns intended to clear heavy brush so crews can find and remove hidden explosives left over from active operations at the base...

They wear black. They're illuminated by city street lights. Their pupils shrink, focused on the mesmerizing flame at their fingertips. They do not speak, but suddenly crack fuel-covered burning whips, swing blazing canes and fire balls on chains. Tracers of firelight linger in the smoky air. Sparks fly and bounce on the asphalt. Orange-blue stripes of ignited fuel on the ground stroke their dancing feet. Among the battery of fuel cans, extinguishers and heat a member of the clan stands intensely watching and holding an outstretched blanket like an unmanned cape, ready to smother any flame that might catch hold....

ORANGE, Calif. (AP) - A 6,520-acre wildfire that triggered evacuations of more than 2,000 homes in northeastern Orange County apparently was ignited by remnants of a controlled burn in Cleveland National Forest that escaped, a U.S. Forest Service official said Tuesday. Despite gusty Santa Ana winds, no homes had been lost in the blaze and evacuation orders were lifted Tuesday afternoon, but Chief Rich Hawkins of the Cleveland National Forest apologized to those displaced from neighborhoods in the cities of Orange and Anaheim about 35 miles southeast of Los Angeles. "I am very regretful of the situation I find myself...

How a forest stopped a fire in its tracks The New York Times SUSANVILLE, Calif. -- Where the fire came through Blacks Mountain Experimental Forest last September, the ground is ash and the trees are charcoal. Black and gray are the colors, lightened only by small mounds of red dust at the base of some of the charred trunks -- the leavings of bark beetles -- and flecks of green where new growth pokes above the ash. Through the tall, ravaged columns, however, a living pine forest is visible. And as visitors inspecting the fire damage walk toward the living...