wildfires

Brian Fennessy has nearly 50 years of fire experience, which began in the late 1970s on elite federal hotshot crews and other wildfire teams.

The 2024 fire season is still fresh in the minds of legislators. They want to avoid spending that much money again, and some are willing to pay now if it means fewer costs later.

A consumer advocacy group is asking top insurance companies to adopt a list of nine protections aimed at increased transparency and fairness.

A group of mostly Western U.S. Senators is demanding answers on why the U.S. Forest Service has fallen behind on efforts to reduce hazardous wildfire fuels. The 12 senators – all Democrats – are from Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and other wildfire-impacted states.

The Healthy Lungs for Heroes Act was introduced by Democratic California Senator Adam Schiff and Republican Utah Senator John Curtis. If passed, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other federal officials would have one year to develop a plan to make “commercially available appropriate respiratory personal protective equipment for wildland firefighters and supporting staff in settings in which smoke exposure surpasses covered permissible exposure limits.”

Data analyzed by the advocacy group Grassroots Wildland Firefighters shows that prescribed fires and other hazardous fuel reduction efforts have fallen by nearly 40% across the West this year.

The tragic Los Angeles fires were a historically destructive disaster, but they also presented a unique opportunity to study the toxic exposures faced by firefighters. New findings point to a heightened risk for serious diseases like lupus.

The governor spent the week teasing priorities in his budget ask to lawmakers, which is expected to be released Monday.

In January, the world watched in horror as fires marched through multiple Los Angeles neighborhoods, leaving behind blocks of smoldering foundations. A recent report tried to calculate how much it would cost to rebuild the structures lost to better withstand the next blaze.

Few states require building with fire-resistant materials, but some in the Mountain West are in the process of changing that.