From the WashPost, see: The West is so dry even a rainforest is on fire. An excerpt:

That a wildfire has been able to burn so extensively and for so long in a rain forest is a testament to the severity of the drought that has wracked the American West from California to Alaska. Olympic National Park — which occupies much of the Olympic Peninsula just west of Seattle — just endured its driest spring in over 100 years and a winter snow pack that was a mere 14 percent of average, according to the Park Service. The glaciers that sit on the upper slopes of the park’s mountains and feed its many streams have been receding for decades — Bill Baccus, a park scientist, told the Seattle Times that the ice sheets have shrunk by 35 percent in the past 30 years.

This settlement is important not only for those affected, but also for the changes likely to come in fighting wildfires in the U. S. See: Arizona Reached Settlement With Kin of 19 who Died Fighting Wildfire

Relatives of some of the 19 firefighters killed in one of the nation’s deadliest wildfires joined state officials here Monday to announce settlements in two legal cases against the Arizona State Forestry Division, the agency responsible for the firefighters on the day they died.

The agreements, disclosed on the eve of the fire’s second anniversary, include more than $600,000 in compensation for the families and an acknowledgment that commanders’ misguided decisions put the elite firefighting crew, the Granite Mountain Hotshots, at great risk.

The Forestry Division has also agreed, as part of the settlement to a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by 12 families, to improve training for its incident commanders and firefighters, test better tracking equipment and join a national effort to provide specific lessons about the effects of dry, warmer seasons on the wild lands.

From the Denver Post, an article titled Treating wildfires like other natural disasters.  The issue is described as follows:

Earlier this year, the president asked Congress to allow Federal Emergency Management (FEMA) disaster fund money to be used to fight the biggest fires. That request has not been approved, and last week the president again asked that wildfires be treated like other catastrophic events.

In his letter to Congress, the president asked for authority “to respond to severe, complex and threatening fires or a severe fire season in the same way we as we fund other natural disasters such as hurricanes or earthquakes.” The request would put this Western problem on par with other calamities. And it would enable the Forest Service to use more of its resources for forest-thinning and other fire-reduction activities. Congress should see the wisdom and parity in this approach.

Update:  Please see the comment from someone who really knows the legal underpinnings of this issue.  [Note: the Diva sent this exchange to the Denver Post.]

In connection with the drought affecting many of the southwestern states, you can track details of  the major wildfire incidents via this website: inciweb.nwcg.gov

It’s very up-to-date and has the latest briefings, fire spread, evacuations, etc.

Thanks to Barbara Word for the citation.

From the Washington Post:  Housing developments near drying forests a deadly combination in the West. From the lead in:

As the climate warms, forest fires in the West increasingly will feast on acres of dry brush, growing into giants. In a cycle that will become routine, homeowners will flee, while firefighters will rush toward their houses — and away from areas where they could be putting out wildfires.

Bigger, unwieldy burns — megafires — are becoming the new normal, according to a new report, which points to several reasons: States such as California are getting parched more frequently by drought; housing developments are pushing more deeply into forests; and the U.S. Forest Service is generally suppressing fires rather than letting them burn naturally, which would reduce the brush that fuels future fires.

As the climate warms, the West will dry, providing an ecological buffet for giant fires.
“That’s one of our biggest conundrums,” said Scott L. Stephens, a professor of fire science at the University of California at Berkeley. “We continue building. We make fire management so much more difficult. The first thing you’re going to do is run and protect people’s homes.”

See the site called Informational Website for the Task Force on Wildfire Insurance and Forest Health.

Thanks to Jude Colle for pointing out this site.

From the Denver Post an article titled: Colorado wildfire task force tackles building in burn zones.

The current fires in the Colorado Springs area are now said to be the worst on recovery for the state of CO. After last year’s devastating and nearly “worst fire” in the state’s history, the governor set up a task force to look and the issue of wildfires and make recommendations. They issued recommendations and this article in yesterday’s Denver Post discusses them. The issues are sensible and even acknowledge that those who want to live in wildfire prone areas should shoulder more of the financial responsibility for their choice and not depend on everyone else to subsidize their decision.

Thanks to Jude Colle for pointing out this article.

Related articles

• Wildfires rage in Colorado (cbsnews.com)
• Colorado Wildfires (charitycentral11.wordpress.com)

From the Seattle Times, July 2, an article titled Colorado’s emergency-response teams burned by anti-tax attitudes. Some excerpts follow:

Because of conservative and libertarian sentiments and a no-tax pledge passed statewide 20 years ago, Colorado police and disaster-response teams are stretched thin as a virulent wildfire ravages land near Colorado Springs.

As Colorado Springs battles a rash of robberies after a wildfire that still licks at its boundaries, it does so with fewer police and firefighters and a limited tax base that may hamper its rebound.

The place where the Waldo Canyon fire destroyed 346 homes and forced more than 34,000 residents to evacuate turned off one-third of its streetlights two years ago, halted park maintenance and cut services to close a $28 million budget gap after sales-tax revenue plummeted and voters rejected a property-tax increase.

The city, the state’s second-largest, with a population of 416,000, auctioned both its police helicopters and shrank its public-safety ranks through attrition by about 8 percent; it has 50 fewer police officers and 39 fewer firefighters than five years ago. More than 180 National Guard troops have been mobilized to secure the city after the state’s most destructive fire. At least 32 evacuated homes were burglarized and dozens of evacuees’ cars were broken into, said Police Chief Pete Carey.

“It has impacted the response,” said accountant Karin White, 54, who returned Thursday to a looted and vandalized home, with a treasured, century-old family heirloom smashed.

“They did above and beyond what they could do with the resources they had,” she said. “If there were more officers, there could have been more manpower in the evacuated areas.”

Since the start of the 18-month recession in December 2007, U.S. cities have faced shrinking revenue and diminishing state support, leading to budget cuts and reductions in services and workforces. Cities faced a fifth-straight year of revenue declines in 2011, according to the National League of Cities, which estimated that municipalities would have to fill budget gaps of as much as $83 billion from 2010-2012.