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From the Source:
"State firefighters have contained a wildfire that burned nearly 600 acres on the Big Island.
The state Department of Land and Natural Resources said Tuesday the grassland fire in the Puu Anahulu Game Management Area was fully contained by noon."
"Image source: Tim Newland." Courtesy of Hawaii News Now.
Finding jobs for veterans is already a tough task; finding meaningful jobs for them is even tougher. Fortunately, many vets are turning to firefighting to give them "a sense of camaraderie and purpose they miss."
From the Source:
'Battalion Chief Richard Hess says many of the veterans really needed the job. "Some of them were having difficulty having jobs just like everybody else in this economy," he says. "Some of them had ... started working in careers that really weren't up to the expectation they had for ... what they want to do with their life."'
'As a department, we're just happy to get a good quality group of guys," he says. "At the same time, it's rewarding on our end to provide them a chance for a good occupation after what they've done for us."'
Above: "Probationary firefighter and military veteran Victor Ramos gets truck driving practice near the 16th Street Firehouse in Union City, N.J. New Jersey's North Hudson Fire Department hired 43 veterans this year." Photo Courtesy of Melanie Burford, NPR
From the Source:
"Although dousing the flames was foremost in people's minds during the recent Rim Fire in Stanislaus National Forest and Yosemite National Park, U.S. Geological Survey scientific work continues well after the fire is out. USGS scientists are continuing their critical research characterizing the hidden dangers faced after large wildfires.
While the fire was still smoldering in September, the multi-agency BAER (Burned Area Emergency Response) team developed a burn-severity map and shared it with USGS scientists. USGS assessed the potential for debris flows that tend to occur when the winter rains soak the steep slopes following fires by adding critical information on soil characteristics, the ruggedness of the terrain, and the typical amount of rainfall in that area in order to model the likelihood and possible volumes of debris flows. The just published Rim Fire debris-flow hazards assessment map, will help land and emergency managers focus mitigation treatments on where the greatest damage might be done by post-fire debris flows."
Above: "A recent image from the Landsat 8 satellite in the vicinity of Yosemite National Park, California, during the Rim Fire (August 31). Started on August 17, the Rim Fire had burned over 219,000 acres by August 31 (an area nearly 15 times the size of Manhattan Island). Image is false-colored using bands 6, 5, 4 to allow identification of critical vegetation and fuels information that will help firefighters and emergency managers. In the image fire appears bright red, vegetation is green, smoke is blue, clouds are white, and bare ground is tan-colored."
From the Source:
"Firefighters had a difficult time reaching the fire and asked staff from nearby Camp Timberline and Monsanto to help them gain access to the blaze, Yamada said.
The fire was first reported around 12:54 p.m. Sunday and about an hour later responders were still struggling with how to put it out."
