Vast scale of Colorado wildfires becomes clear as residents finally return to survey what's left of their homes
After being forced to evacuate four days ago, the residents near Boulder in Colorado will have the chance today to see whether anything but rubble remains of their homes.
Wildfires have raged in the area and authorities demanded that over 3,500 people were evacuated from about 1,000 houses.
At least 135 of those homes have been destroyed, making the blaze one of the most destructive in Colorado's history.
The sheer scale of the damage caused by the fires can be seen in the images below, where a tennis court is shown surrounded by charred woodland and rubble where houses once stood.
Ruined: An aerial photograph shows the scale of the destruction in Boulder, Colorado
Several thousand Muscovites are thought to have died in July alone from this year’s unprecedented heatwave and August could add more fatalities to the grim statistics, a Russian scientist said today.
Moscow, a metropolis of over 10 million people, suffered from intense heat since late June, with day temperatures sometimes nearing 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).
The crisis shrivelled a third of Russia’s grain crop, shaved billions off this year’s economic growth and killed at least 54 people in wildfires. The heat subsided today.
Citing a report by the Moscow Registry Office, Boris Revich, a senior demography and ecology researcher at Russia’s Academy of Sciences, said 5,840 more Muscovites had died in July than in the same month last year.
Revich said he believed the overwhelming majority of these additional deaths had been caused by the fierce heatwave.
Smoke from a wildfire is seen outside the settlement of Kustarevka in the Ryazan region, southeast of Moscow, August 10, 2010
A ban on Russian grain exports, designed to restrain domestic food prices because of a severe drought, will not be lifted earlier than its December 31 expiry, First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov said on Friday.
This is the latest twist in the ban saga, which started after the Russian unit of commodities trader Glencore asked the government to impose a ban for 4-6 weeks from September.
But the government imposed it from Aug 15 to December 31.
A firefighter tries to extinguish a wildfire outside the settlement of Kustarevka in Ryazan region, some 340km southeast of Moscow, today, August 10, 2010. — Reuters pic
Russia’s deadly summer heatwave could wipe up to US$14 billion (RM44.8 billion) off economic growth, economists said today, as wildfires raged on in several provinces and forecasters said sweltering weather won’t abate this week.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who has sought to burnish his action-man image and minimise political fallout from wildfires and drought, flew in a firefighting plane that dropped water on a blaze southwest of Moscow, state media reported.
State-run television showed Putin wearing headphones in a cockpit, pressing buttons on a handheld control panel.
The worst heat wave on record could knock one percentage point off gross domestic product, according to estimates, weakening a recovery from a 2009 slump due to the global financial crisis.
People walk in central Moscow as a heavy smog caused by peat fires in nearby forests shrouded the capital yesterday, August 6, 2010
Dense clouds of acrid smoke from peat and forest fires choked Russia’s capital yesterday, seeping into homes and offices, diverting planes and prompting exhausted Muscovites to wear surgical masks to filter the foul air.
Air pollution surged to five times normal levels in the city of 10.5 million, the highest sustained contamination since Russia’s worst heat wave in over a century began a month ago.
“It feels like I’m in a burning house and I can’t escape,” said Yelena Petrenko, 32, who used a handkerchief to cover her mouth because drugstores she visited had run out of facemasks.
Officials urged Muscovites to stay indoors because of the dangerous levels of carbon monoxide and fine particles in the air. Weather forecasts said the smoke, which has reached even underground metro stations, would persist until Monday.
A firefighter works to extinguish a fire in a pine forest outside Voronezh, Russia today August 2, 2010
Russia declared a state of emergency in seven regions today after wildfires killed at least 34 people and left thousands homeless in the worst heat wave since records began 130 years ago.
Fires raging across European Russia have destroyed homes, forests and fields, already scorched for weeks by an unprecedented heat wave.
A man walks at the court yard of his house after it was burned by a forest fire near the town of Voronezh some 500 km (294 miles) south of Moscow, Saturday, July 31, 2010. Russia sent the army on Saturday to battle wildfires that have killed at least 28 people and were threatening dozens of towns and villages. Thick smoke and ash slowed firefighting efforts and thousands of people were being evacuated.
Firefighters have brought wildfires under control in some parts of Russia, but new fires are breaking out elsewhere.
The wildfires that began threatening much of western Russia last week have killed 28 people and destroyed or damaged 77 towns or villages. Thousands have been evacuated from areas in the path of encroaching flames.
In the southern Voronezh region, one of the worst hit, officials said Sunday the fires are under control and no longer threaten any population centers.
But Emergencies Ministry spokeswoman Yelena Chernova said new fires are breaking out elsewhere, particularly in the Mordovia region and around the industrial city of Togliatti.
Much of Russia is suffering a severe drought in the hottest summer since record keeping began 130 years ago.
Firefighters monitor a fire in the suburb of Glendale on the outskirts of Los Angeles city, California, 01 Sep 2009 Firefighters watches over the fire.
Left over after the bush fires swepts across the California hills.
Federal authorities failed to follow through on plans earlier this year to burn away highly flammable brush in a forest on the edge of Los Angeles to avoid the very kind of wildfire now raging there, The Associated Press has learned.
Months before the huge blaze erupted, the U.S. Forest Service obtained permits to burn away the undergrowth and brush on more than 1,700 acres of the Angeles National Forest. But just 193 acres had been cleared by the time the fire broke out, Forest Service resource officer Steve Bear said.
The agency defended its efforts, saying weather, wind and environmental rules tightly limit how often these "prescribed burns" can be conducted.
"This brush was ready to explode," said Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, whose district overlaps the forest. "The environmentalists have gone to the extreme to prevent controlled burns, and as a result we have this catastrophe today."
Prescribed burns are intended to protect homes and lives by eliminating fuel that can cause explosive wildfires. The wildfire that has blackened 140,000 acres — or nearly 219 square miles — in the forest over the past week has been fed by the kind of tinder-dry vegetation that prescribed burns are designed to safely devour.
Government firefighters set thousands of blazes each year to reduce the wildfire risk in overgrown forests and grasslands around the nation. Prescribed burns can also be used to improve overall forest health and increase forage for wildlife.
Obtaining the necessary permits is a complicated process, and such efforts often draw protests from environmentalists.
"Our air quality, for a variety of factors, doesn't need to be further reduced by these controlled burns," she said.
Setting pre-emptive fires can be especially risky near heavily populated urban areas like Los Angeles because of the danger of flames burning out of control. Last month, a 90-acre prescribed burn near Foresta, on the edge of Yosemite National Park, jumped fire lines and consumed more than 7 square miles in the park.
Meanwhile , The blaze moved toward suburban homes and Mount Wilson, home of the space observatory and dozens of mobile phone, radio and television transmission towers about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast of downtown Los Angeles. Smoke was visible throughout the city. Crews returned to Mount Wilson today to defend it, the Forest Service said. May cause disruptions to thousands of residents.
Fire officials expanded evacuation orders in the Acton, La Canada Flintridge and Altadena areas and closed more of the Angeles National Forest as the Station Fire grew to more than 42,000 acres.
Wildfire rages , going towards Mount Wilson , about 150 firefighters and 15 fire engines are struggling to protect the historic Mount Wilson Observatory, founded in 1904
A helicopter drops water on hot spots as it flies through dense smoke near Acton, Calif.
Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies and residents help evacuate horses as fires burn the hills above Acton, Calif.
A firefighter clears brush from a propane tank in Acton as a fire races through the Angeles National Forest, where 18 structures were confirmed destroyed.
A giant fire in the Angeles National Forest continued its slow-motion rampage through the mountains yesterday, claiming the lives of two firefighters as it bore down on the semi-rural community of Acton and threatening to overrun Mount Wilson.The two firefighters were killed when they drove off the side of a treacherous road in the Mount Gleason area, south of Acton, around 2:30 p.m., said Los Angeles County Deputy Chief Mike Bryant. He did not release their identities or other details.
Two firefighters died in a wildfire Sunday in the San Gabriel Mountains that threatened about 12,000 homes and the century-old Mount Wilson Observatory.
Los Angeles County Deputy Fire Chief Mike Bryant said the two firefighters died in the Angeles National Forest when their vehicle went off the road and over a hillside amid intense flames. He did not release their identities.
"This is a very difficult time," he said.
We ask for your understanding, for your patience as we move through this difficult time, and please, prayers for the families of our two brothers that we lost," county Deputy Fire Chief Mike Bryant said through tears at a Sunday press conference.
Fire Capt. Tedmund Hall, 47, of San Bernardino County, and firefighter Specialist Arnaldo "Arnie" Quinones, 35, of Palmdale, were killed in the crash, the department said. Authorities did not give a cause for the crash.
Hall was a 26-year veteran, and Quinones had been a county firefighter for eight years.
"Our hearts are heavy as we are tragically reminded of the sacrifices our firefighters and their families make daily to keep us safe," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a statement
The blaze, which has burned 42,500 acres in four days, was only 5% contained and its southern edge was just 12 miles from downtown Los Angeles, the U.S. Forest Service said.
The fire had churned through more than 42,500 acres of chaparral and forest, from the edge of metropolitan Los Angeles up to pine-clad ridges and down toward the Mojave desert. More than 12,500 homes were under threat and 6,600 under mandatory evacuation. Eighteen residences were destroyed, fire officials said, mostly in the Big Tujunga Canyon area.
The fire was 5 percent contained, they said, and at least temporarily eased off the foothill communities from La Canada-Flintridge to Altadena on its southern flank.
On Sunday, it was threatening the city of Acton in the Apple Valley, a high-desert area at the northern perimeter of the Angeles National Forest. The fire command center said at least three homes burned and it expected more destruction.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger visited the fire Sunday and urged residents to move quickly when ordered out by firefighters.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department reported two people were severely burned and evacuated by county helicopter after resisting orders to leave. Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said the pair "totally underestimated the fire."
"They ran and jumped into a hot tub thinking the water would provide some kind of relief," he said.
The historic Mount Wilson Observatory, founded in 1904, was in danger. Director Hal McAlister reported on the observatory's website that more than 150 firefighters and 15 firetrucks were fighting to protect the facility.
A dozen or more of the residents took refuge at the Eagles Club Lodge in Azusa — which provided food, showers and tents — after they said their menagerie of pet dogs, cats, birds, rabbits and hamsters were turned away from a Red Cross shelter.
"The Eagles are saving us, man," said Jack Wagstaff, an engineer.
A growing wildfire sending massive billows of smoke into the sky north of Los Angeles nearly tripled in size Saturday, injuring three residents, destroying at least three homes, knocking out power to many more and spurring evacuations in a number of mountain communities.
Mandatory evacuations were extended into neighborhoods in the canyons on the northwestern edge of Altadena, Glendale, Pasadena, La Crescenta and Big Tujunga Canyon, Forest Service spokesman Bruce Quintelier said.
A member of the Vista Grande Hot Shots helps to cut a fire line with hand tools in order to slow the advance of the Station Fire that is burning in the San Gabriel Mountains above the city of La Canada Flintridge, 20 miles outside of downtown Los Angeles, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2009.
The Vista Grande Hot Shots walk past a tree in a La Canada Flintridge neighborhood as they prepare to cut a fire line with hand tools in order to slow the advance of the Station Fire that is burning in the San Gabriel Mountains above the city of La Canada Flintridge, 20 miles outside of downtown Los Angeles, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2009.
In this photo taken from Monterey Park, Calif., smoke billows from a fire in the foothill above La Canada Filintridge Calif., filling the San Gabriel Valley. Wildfire threatened hundreds of homes in the foothill canyons near Los Angeles.
The Vista Grande Hot Shots run a fire hose to maintain a fire line with hand tools in order to slow the advance of the Station Fire that is burning in the San Gabriel Mountains above the city of La Canada Flintridge, 20 miles outside of downtown Los Angeles, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2009.
The Vista Grande Hot Shots prepare to cut a fire line with hand tools in order to slow the advance of the Station Fire that is burning in the San Gabriel Mountains above the city of La Canada Flintridge, 20 miles outside of downtown Los Angeles, Saturday,
A structure is shown engulfed in flames near Big Tujunga Road in La Canada Flintridge, Calif., Saturday, Aug. 29, 2009. A growing wildfire sending massive billows of smoke into the sky north of Los Angeles nearly tripled in size Saturday, injuring three residents, knocking out power to homes and prompting evacuations in a number of mountain communities.
In this photo taken from Monterey Park, Calif., smoke billows from a fire in the foothill above La Canada Flintridge, Calif., filling the San Gabriel Valley. Wildfire threatened hundreds of homes in the foothill canyons near Los Angeles.
A DC-10 jet dumps chemical fire retardant in order to slow the advance of the Station Fire that is burning in the San Gabriel Mountains above the city of La Canada Flintridge, 20 miles outside of downtown Los Angeles, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2009
The Vista Grande Hot Shots cut a fire line with hand tools in order to slow the advance of the Station Fire that is burning in the San Gabriel Mountains above the city of La Canada Flintridge, 20 miles outside of downtown Los Angeles, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2009
The flames crept lower down the slopes of the San Gabriel Mountains despite winds blowing predominantly in the other direction, threatening more than 2,000 homes in the La Canada Flintridge area. Officials estimated that 1,000 homes had been evacuated.
The fire was the largest and most dangerous of several burning around southern and central California and in Yosemite National Park.
Flames knocked out power to at least 164 residences in La Canada Flintridge on Saturday, according to Southern California Edison. Repair crews were ordered to stay out of the area because of fire danger.
More than 31 square miles of dry forest was scorched by the fire. It was only 5 percent contained.
Air crews waged a fierce battle against the southeast corner of the fire, burning dangerously close to canyon homes. Spotter planes with tankers on their tails dove well below ridge lines to lay bright orange retardant then pulled up dramatically over neighborhoods, and giant sky crane helicopters swooped in to unleash showers on the biggest flareups.
A major goal was to keep the fire from spreading up Mount Wilson, where many of the region's broadcast and communications antennas and the historic Mount Wilson Observatory are located, officials said.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency Friday in Los Angeles and Monterey counties.
Attorney General Eric Holder is considering appointing a prosecutor to investigate a CIA interrogation program.
President Obama's Attorney-General Eric Holder is expected to make clear whether he will appoint a criminal prosecutor to investigate alleged abuse by CIA officials
CIA interrogators threatened an al Qaeda prisoner with a gun and an electric drill to try to scare him into giving up information, according to a long-concealed inspector-general's report due to be made public on Monday, sources familiar with the report confirmed to CNN.
The gun and drill were used in two separate interrogation sessions against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, one of the sources said. Al-Nashiri is accused of plotting the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, which left 17 U.S. sailors dead.
The alleged crimes and abuses carried out under the Bush Administration will take centre stage today with the release of a report detailing brutal CIA interrogations, a document that could trigger criminal investigations later this week.
The CIA inspector-general’s report claims that the harsh interrogation of terror suspects was ineffective, and produced no valuable intelligence.
In another episode, a gunshot was fired in a room next to a detainee to make the prisoner believe another suspect had been executed. It is illegal under US torture statutes to threaten a detainee with imminent death.
Democrats are particularly focused on Bush-era Justice Department officials who wrote legal opinions for the CIA that justified techniques including waterboarding, and who claimed that threats of imminent death were legal if they did not cause permanent mental harm.
Mr al-Nashiri’s interrogation sessions were videotaped, but the tapes were destroyed by CIA officials in 2005. A federal prosecutor is now investigating the circusmtances of their destruction.
Other documents expected to be released today include memos that former Vice-President Dick Cheney has said prove that harsh interrogation techniques produced valuable intelligence about al-Qaeda.
Mr Cheney said earlier this year that he had seen documents containing evidence that lives had been saved because of “enhanced” interrogations. If such a document emerges today the emotive debate about the effectiveness of torture will be reignited.
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President Bush acknowledged the existence of secret CIA prisons for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay awaiting trial.
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They disappeared: Are they dead? Are they alive? Some were in secret CIA prisons in Europe and the United States, tortured with the help of several nations. Some who survived the Western torture are being released due to international pressure, and the Red Cross this week presented an International Red Cross Report about Torture in secret CIA prisons globally. The secret prisons and torture were probaly located in Europe and the United States, but both sides refuse to give any comment on this issue.
Senior CIA official Mary O. McCarthy couldn't take it anymore and provided classified information about CIA secret prisons in Europe to The Washington Post's Dana Priest. After that the CIA fired him, and refusing any further comment about the existence of the "black sites" in Europe. Europe also refuses to give any comment
Several thousand residents of Athens' northern suburbs have evacuated their homes as several wildfires continue to blaze around the Greek capital.
Almost the entire population of Agios Stefanos, 23km (14 miles) north-east of Athens, fled by vehicle or on foot.
Multiple fires have been burning across an area some 50km wide, fanned by strong and unpredictable winds.
Firefighting efforts were suspended as darkness fell on Sunday, with several major blazes still burning into the night, although no casualties have been reported.
"The constant shift in the wind's direction is rekindling the flames," fire brigade spokesman Giannis Kapakis told Reuters news agency. "We must all remain calm through this night."
Dozens of homes were burnt down and a state of emergency was declared in the Athens area.
Gale-force winds hampered firefighting efforts for a second day as the flames encroached on the city's outer suburbs. Officials appealed to residents to evacuate but some Athenians remained in their homes to try to battle the inferno with hoses and buckets.
The Greek government has appealed for help from Italy, France and Cyprus. State-run institutions, including the children's hospital in Pendeli, were abandoned as the flames spread.
"What we are facing is a huge ordeal," said prime minister Kostas Karamanlis. "A massive effort by authorities is taking place to deal with this very difficult challenge."
Environmentalists said that the blazes had caused "biblical damage" to an estimated 120,000 hectares of virgin fir and prime forest. Scores of homes in well-heeled north-eastern Athens were also reported to have been gutted. The scenes evoked memories of the devastating fires of 2007, in which up to 70 people were killed. Greeks are now asking how their country could still appear so unprepared for a similar disaster.
"There is no coordination between the police, fire fighters or local authorities. It's chaos," said Yiannis Nikitopoulos, the mayor of Anixi, one of the affected suburbs. He added that he had "no doubt" that most of the fires now afflicting Athens were the work of arsonists determined to clear land for developers.
Residenst in shock over the fire spread.
Smoke blanket out the normal sunny Athens.
Fireplanes are used intensively to sent water to hotspots all over Athens.
Fireplane trying to stop the firespread.
Map show the fire hotspots all over Athens Greek
A plane drops water over a fire in Varnava village
An elderly woman stands in the middle of a street in Grammatiko
A resident on a water wagon at Mount Penteli, east of Athens
Fire illuminates the sky behind the Acropolis in Athens
Thick smoke over the Acropolis
Citizens of Anthusa inspect the damage caused by the fire
A firefighter trains a hose on the flames outside Marathon village
Houses threatened by the Kaletzi fire
A fireman waits for help during a fire that broke out at the village of Kaletzi. Authorities have declared a state of emergency and order residents to evacuate
A firefighting helicopter flies over Kaletzi
A helicopter drops water over Grammatiko
Locals run to escape a forest fire at Grammatiko village. Fires broke out late on Friday, fanned by strong winds
Residents cover their faces as they flee the flames in Pedeli, north of Athens
Smoke hovers above the north-east suburbs of Athens
The smouldering remnants of a house after a blaze in the north Athens suburb of Drafi
The sun rises in the smoky sky over Athens
Volunteers battle blazes in Pallini
Thick smoke above Athens
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Massive forest fire that broke out friday night blazed into its third day near Athens Απευθείας σύνδεση: Η μεγάλη πυρκαγιά στην Αττική. live stream from www.zougla.
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Russian plane at Athens fire
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This is the CL 215 or 415 aka Super Scooper, the suck water from the sea and used in to doze fire. Able to scoop (suck ) 6,400 liters of water in 12 seconds , mix it foam if required and then drop it at firespot..all without going to airport to refill. Notice it is able to do it while guiding on the water. Mininum of 410 meter of water streth is required. Able to suck at even 2 meter deep of water only..It is still flying while sucking water hence not necessary straigh water source is required it can flying around while sucking water.
