Free Republic

CARMEL-BY-THE-SEA, Calif. (Reuters) - A deadly blaze near California's Big Sur coast could widen to more than five times its current size and has destroyed some 60 homes, threatened hundreds of others and spurred mass evacuations, authorities said on Saturday. The so-called Soberanes Fire, which started on July 22 and is burning just south of the oceanside town of Carmel-by-the-Sea, has roared through nearly 32,000 acres (13,000 hectares) of drought-parched chaparral, grass and timber in the Los Padres National Forest. The blaze is estimated to have a final size of 170,000 acres (265 square miles), according to California Interagency Incident...

While the imam behind the planned mosque near Ground Zero was jetting around the globe touting his project, a pair of dilapidated apartment buildings he owns in New Jersey fell into such disrepair that cops have to stand watch in the event of a fire. The fire watch, at taxpayer expense, was revealed during a court hearing yesterday where Union City lawyers asked to have two buildings owned by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf placed into receivership so that rents could be used to fix dozens of violations, including inoperable alarms and sprinklers. Judge Thomas Olivieri gave Rauf's attorney, Tomas Espinosa,...

11/17/03 USDA FOREST SERVICE UNVEILS NEW HELICOPTER TECHNOLOGY Boise, Idaho --- The USDA Forest Service has nearly completed work on a new tool for firefighting. The new Firewatch helicopter is a redesigned AH-1 Army “Cobra” helicopter and is a prototype for a new aerial supervision platform for coordinating air resources over wildland fires. In early 2003, the Forest Service acquired 25 Cobra helicopters from the Army excess property program as a part of a technology demonstration project to study ways of increasing the efficiency of air operations by leveraging emerging technologies. A recommendation for using new technologies was included in...