Free Republic

A couple of nights ago, my wife hollered to me that the dryer was smoking, even as she shut it down. I grabbed the machine, dragged it out of its slot, and disconnected it from power and the dryer vent, ready to drag its hot and still smoking carcass into the yard rather than have it burn the house down. The smoke was some of the most acrid I have encountered, and that includes my time as a firefighter in structural, woods, marsh/brush, boat, and vehicle fires. Before I made it to the threshhold, though, the fire burned out. With...

Steps to prevent catastrophic wildfires in the Lake Tahoe basin, one of the country's most treasured natural wonders, have been hampered for years by bureaucratic infighting among agencies that often work at cross purposes, according to thousands of pages of documents reviewed by The Associated Press. The failure of the agencies to adequately protect the basin was brought to light last June when the Angora Fire ripped through a thickly forested ravine and destroyed 254 homes near South Lake Tahoe. Since then, blame has fallen on the overlapping agencies that have environmental and regulatory oversight of the Tahoe basin. A...

A disputed land-use strategy designed to protect new developments from devastation in the county's exurban, fire-prone areas appears to have passed its first and most critical test this week. As the Witch Creek fire raced through some of San Diego County's priciest neighborhoods and crept to the edge of others north and east of Rancho Santa Fe, not a single home in the five subdivisions that have implemented the strategy was lost, fire authorities said. The communities, which together cover hundreds of acres, are The Bridges, The Crosby, Cielo, Santa Fe Valley and 4S Ranch. Officials with the Rancho Santa...

By Mitch Tobin , ARIZONA DAILY STAR With pressure from the University of Arizona, the U.S. Forest Service has quietly begun pruning and cleaning the forest around the telescopes atop Mount Graham. The work, within critical habitat for an endangered squirrel, comes as UA officials worry about a catastrophic wildfire roaring through a $120 million telescope complex that environmentalists and some American Indians have fought for more than a decade. In 1996, flames from a 6,716-acre wildfire came within 200 yards of the telescopes. As the monsoon arrives, the top of the Pinaleno Mountains, 75 miles northeast of Tucson, is...