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Winter That Wasn’t Fuels Deadly Spring Of Wildfires

The winter that wasn’t is bleeding into a spring of fire, with freakish warmth and dry ground breeding a disturbingly early start to wildfire season across the nation:

ALABAMA: A wildfire burned 70 to 100 acres of land in Tuscaloosa County before being contained. [WBRC]

Firefighters are still fighting a forest fire that has blackened more than 350 acres north of Waterloo in Lauderdale County since Monday. [Florence Times-Daily]

ARIZONA: Emergency personnel said a wildfire that broke out in eastern Santa Cruz County burned close to 450 acres Saturday night. [Nogales International]

COLORADO: Residents on Colorado’s eastern plains are trying to determine the extent of damage and the number of farm animals killed following a wildfire that charred more than 37 square miles, destroyed two farmsteads, and forced 1000 people to evacuate. Three firefighters were injured, one with critical burns, while trying to escape from a stranded fire truck after the fire broke out last Sunday. [AP]

FLORIDA: Statewide, the dry conditions and the lack of tropical systems last year have helped cause 986 wildfires that have burned more than 16,000 acres since Jan. 1. [Palatka Daily]

The Florida Forest Service is working to contain a 50-acre wildfire northwest of Baldwin in Baldwin Bay. [News 4 Jacksonville]

GEORGIA: A wildfire forced officials to evacuate four homes and shut down one road for a couple of hours Tuesday evening in Cook County. [WALB]

MICHIGAN: Wildfire season has descended upon Michigan early this year, as unseasonable temperatures combined with low snowfall this winter have dried out grass and wood earlier than usual. [Arenac County Independent]

The remains of a bonfire left unattended in Tuesday’s high winds and heat caused a 40-acre wildfire in a swampy section of Custer Township bounded by Johnson, Stephens, Hansen and Reek roads. [Ludington Daily News]

MINNESOTA: Wildfire activity has picked up significantly, and people are reminded to obtain burn permits and keep an eye on weather conditions. [Grand Forks Herald]

VIRGINIA: U.S. Forestry Service and Virginia Department of Forestry crews are responding to a wildfire that began in the Wise County side of High Knob Tuesday afternoon. [Kingsport TImes News]

WISCONSIN: As of Tuesday morning firefighters had responded to 160 wildfires over roughly 300 acres on state-protected lands. Two people were killed in grass fires in the last week. [Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel]

Meanwhile, wildfires are burning in Costa Rica and ravaging northern Kenya, including a fire on the slopes of Mount Kenya, the nations’s tallest mountain, which “is sending big game animals like elephants fleeing for their lives.”

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Scientists have warned for decades that the hundreds of billions of tons of greenhouse pollution added to the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels would bring these disasters. The states that are now burning are now also polluted by dozens of politicians who claim the science is a lie.