About 30 USAF reservists, from Colorado, headed to Texas on April 16. They will be using their C-130 Hercules transports to drop fire retardant on the Coahuila fire in Mexico. That fire is the largest fire in Mexico’s history, as of April 16 it was within 96.5km (60 miles) of the Texas border.
The USAF is also using C-130s to fight the largest fires in Texas’ history as well.
I used to live in Texas, back in the mid 1980s, and asking the Federal government for anything was a dishonorable thing to do, if you’re from Texas. I guess things are pretty bad if Texas Governor Rick Perry is asking President Obama for help.
“Texas is reaching its capacity to respond to these emergencies and is in need of federal assistance. I urge President Obama to approve our request quickly.”-Rick Perry, Texas Governor
One person has been arrested for starting one of the fires, near Austin.
Because of bad weather conditions, drought and winds, it looks like the fires will get worse: “It doesn’t look good, going into the season, to already have a fire this size, without any rain in sight.”-Chris Morris, National Weather Service.
Texas Forest Service officials say conditions are still explosive. The fire is now burning residential areas. Officials say, as of April 17, the fires have burned one million acres (404,685 hectares)
NASA photos show, as of April 11, the Coahuila fire has burned at least 300 square miles. The photo also shows the smoke blowing northeast, towards the Rio Grande (called Rio Bravo in Mexico). This is contrary to some Mexican reports that say it’s blowing to the southwest (maybe they meant it’s bowing OUT of the southwest). But, the winds have been the main cause of the big fire, and could be changing directions.
“We could have the area under control in about two to two and a half weeks.”-Juan Elvira, Mexican Environment Minister
This has turned into Mexico’s biggest wild fire. Fire fighting helicopters, and a Boeing 747 water tanker, from the United States are helping. Mexico is asking Canada for help, as well.
So far nearly 43 thousand hectares (106,255 acres) of Coahuila, Mexico has burned. The fire still rages.
“This is an unprecedented display. Surely we have not had so much equipment and so many people working in a fire.”-Juan Manuel Torres Rojo, CEO of the National Forestry Commission (Conafor)
Rojo says wildlife is being killed by the fire. They found a black bear that died from smoke inhalation. So far mostly wild grasses and similar plants have burned, but now the fire is getting close to Arizona Pine forest.
Since the turn of the 20th Century there have been only 5 monster quakes registering 9.0 or higher.
1952 Soviet Kamchatka 9.0
1960 Chile 9.5
1964 Alaska 9.4
2004 Sumatra/Indonesia 9.1
2011 Japan 9.0
They are all related; they are all on, or connected to, the Pacific Ring of Fire.
The time between each quake is not equally spaced so it’s not possible to predict when the next one will hit (using that method). 8 years between Kamchatka & Chile, 4 years between Chile & Alaska, 40 years between Alaska & Sumatra, 7 years between Sumatra & Japan.
Japanese scientist say there is a new threat associated with tsunamis: Fire.
Thanks to our reliance on petroleum products, especially fuel, coastal cities face destruction by fire, as well as water.
Several Japanese coastal towns burned to the ground because of fires started by the tsunami. Boats, cars and fuel storage facilities hit by the tsunami, spilled fuel onto the water, catching fire, apparently by sparks from metal being clashed together in the tsunami, or electrical shorts in boats and cars.
Those fires then spread to buildings. Local fire departments discovered that water lines for fire hydrants had been destroyed by the quake/tsunami.
Hardest hit by the fires, Kesennuma, suffered intense fire. Witnesses say that fire spread throughout the city in less than 3 hours after the tsunami hit. The city was still burning 5 days later.
An NHK reporter discovered, in an abandoned fishing town of Kesennuma, that fires that destroyed the city have spread to the country side.
No firefighting capabilities due to the destruction. Wild fires likely to spread.
The reporter talked to the few survivors in the area and they said the fire was spread by a fishing boat, that was on fire, being pushed around the city by the tsunami. Kesennuma was destroyed by flood and fire.