COP26, the United Nations 26th conference on climate change, follows hot on the heels of yet another catastrophic wildfire season in British Columbia. …Once again, the cost of direct fire suppression exceeded half a billion dollars and total fire costs, including substantial business losses, infrastructure damage, and long-term physical and emotional health impacts, will run into the billions of dollars. By 2030, record-breaking years like 2017, 2018 and 2021 will be typical, and future extremes may be even worse. Our rapidly changing climate drives this crisis, but it is equally fuelled by a century of outdated forest and fire management practices. …Today, B.C.’s landscape is filled with flammable fuel — living and dead plant biomass — measured in the billions of tonnes. Much of this fuel is slash — the logs, branches and stumps left over from forest harvest. …Slash is most effectively reduced by broadcast burning — a low-intensity prescribed fire across an area that consumes the most-hazardous flammable fuels.
A scorcher of a summer and flocks of West Country campers would seem a potentially dangerous combination for sparking wildfires. Yet, Alberta’s wildfire season passed without a repeat of the devastating experiences in parts of the province of 2016 and 2019. This past season, 1,307 wildfires burned 130,855 acres. The five-year average is about 1,100 wildfires burning 784,000 acres. In the West Country Public Land Use Zone, located within the Rocky Mountain Forest Area, there were 108 wildfires. Humans were responsible for 80 of them and 27 were caused by lightning strikes. One fire is still under investigation. While that is higher than the five-year average of 67 wildfires from 2016 to 2020, it is a case of one set of statistics not telling the full story. “Wildfire starts were smaller this year,” said Alberta Agriculture and Forestry spokesperson Josee St-Onge. “There were fewer fires that got out of control and take a lot of resources to put out.”
A second wildfire ignited Thursday in the Cleveland National Forest, where crews were already working to control the 
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Shifting winds posed new challenges for firefighters battling a blaze in Southern California coastal mountains that threatened ranches and rural homes and kept a major highway shut down for days. The Alisal Fire charred more than 24 square miles of dense chaparral in the Santa Ynez Mountains west of Santa Barbara. Containment was just 5% Wednesday evening. While the scenic region along the Pacific shoreline is lightly populated, the blaze was a threat to more than 100 homes, ranches and other buildings, fire officials said, including a ranch once owned by Ronald and Nancy Reagan …A historic drought in the American West tied to climate change is making wildfires harder to fight. It has killed millions of trees in California alone. Scientists say climate change has made the West much warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.
When the Dixie fire sparked in Plumas County on a warm afternoon in July, few could have known that it would morph into the monster it soon became. A downed tree, a blown power line fuse and a small ring of fire were all it took to create the second-largest wildfire in California history. In the days and weeks after the fire began, it produced one ominous sign after another — generating its own lightning, burning clear across the Sierra and, most horrifically, reducing the town of Greenville to ashes. Soon it was threatening to surpass the size of the August Complex of 2020, the largest wildfire in California history, which burned more than 1 million acres. But after nearly two months of nonstop expansion, something shifted. Seemingly overnight, the weather grew more favorable, the fiery terrain leveled out, and crews were able to turn a corner on the massive blaze.
Evacuations were ordered Thursday in a Northern California community as a new wildfire spread, authorities said. The Shasta County Sheriff’s Office issued a mandatory evacuation order because of the Fawn Fire burning in the unincorporated Mountain Gate area north of the city of Redding at the far north end of the Central Valley. … The number of residents affected was not immediately known. … Some 2,000 structures were threatened. The fire has grown to nearly 2 square miles (5 square kilometers) since it started Wednesday afternoon and was just 5% contained. The fire was burning in heavy timber on steep, rugged terrain amid hot, dry and gusty conditions. Statewide, more than 9,000 firefighters remained assigned to 10 large, active wildfires, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Officials are advising those in the Bay Area and the San Joaquin Valley to limit their time outside as wildfire smoke and ash fills the air. Air quality remains a concern in California thanks to severe active wildfires and health experts are warning people to limit their time outside. Wildfires are also threatening California’s historic sequoia trees. Officials evacuated communities near Sequoia National Park as the Windy and KNP Complex fires got closer. On Wednesday, officials showed reporters how Sequoia National Park’s famous Giant Forest has been protected from the KNP Complex fire by years of using carefully set and controlled fires to burn away vegetation that can serve as wildfire fuel. …Statewide, more than 9,000 firefighters remained assigned to 10 large, active wildfires, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
EASTLAND, Texas — Fire crews in Texas made progress Saturday against a massive complex of wildfires that have killed a deputy sheriff and burned at least 50 homes, officials said. “Progress has been made, but fire activity has picked up with rising temperatures and lower humidity,” said Matt Ford, spokesperson for Texas A&M Forest Services. He said about 25% of the flames were contained, up from about 4% late Friday as the fire burned thick brush and grass fields. The fires had burned about 130 square miles (330 square kilometers), including about 70 square miles (185 square kilometers) in the Eastland Complex, according to the agency. That area is around 120 miles west of Dallas. Gusty winds were expected to return Sunday, again raising the wildfire threat to critical levels.
CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA — As the colder autumn, months begin, today officially marks the beginning of wildfire season in West Virginia. The West Virginia Division of Forestry says during wildfire season which begins October 1, they see many wildfires in the central and southern parts of the state due to the remote and rugged terrain. “Usually in the fall we’ll see about 250 to 300 fires statewide, and we will burn about three to four thousand acres,” said Jeremy Jones, Fire Staff Assistant with the West Virginia Division of Forestry. This fall West Virginia is expected to have an average wildfire season…which could quickly change. “Virginia is predicting an above-average season. We’re hoping that doesn’t bleed over into our high fire area which butts up to Virginia,” said Jones. …when dry tree bark and leaves begin to fall on the ground, it creates the ideal place for a wildfire to ignite.