Wildfires

Wildfires - Alaska - Update

As of Thursday night, more than 200 wildfires were blazing in our most northern state, including a monster-sized wildfire, The Swan Lake fire that was ignited by lightning on June 5. The Swan Lake fire, near Sterling on the Kenai Peninsula, has become the country's largest wildfire, growing to over 161,000 acres, as of Thursday night. Meanwhile the Ethel Creek Fire near Koliganek that has now burned over 18,000 acres.

Wildfires - California, USA

A wildfire in California’s high desert near Susanville is expected to burn for another week. The R-1 Ranch Fire was started Wednesday evening by a lightning strike in Hagata Canyon, east of Eagle Lake. Twenty-four hours later, it had burned 1,800 acres and was 10 percent contained.

The biggest wildfire currently burning in California is the Springs Fire, south of Mono Lake. Started on July 26 by a lightning strike, it has burned 3,844 acres and is 50 percent contained.

Wildfires - Brazil

Brazil’s government is banning most legal fires, used for land-clearing, for at least 60 days in the wake of the massive blazes that ravaged the Amazon rainforest.

Currently, farmers and others are allowed to set some fires as long as they have licenses from environmental authorities, the country’s forest code states.

This year, however, there’s been a 77 percent uptick in fires compared to the same period last year — a total of 83,000 blazes, the network reported, citing data from the National Institute for Space Research.