The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. – Benjamin Franklin
– Russia Wildfires in Russia more rampant in 2011, spread over east (RIA Novosti, June 7, 2011):
Russia reported 234 wildfires burning in forests and peat bogs on Tuesday, covering an area three times the size of that for the same period last year.
The fires, up 30 from Monday, are raging across a vast area of 618,000 hectares in remote parts of Siberia and the Urals, according to Rosleskhoz, the Federal Forest Service.
Read moreRussia Wildfires in Russia more rampant in 2011, spread over east
– Five U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq…U.S. missiles kill 16 in Pakistan…Ariz. still battling fires (AP, June 6 2011)
BAGHDAD (AP) — The U.S. military says 5 American troops have been killed in central Iraq. A military statement says the 5 were killed today, but doesn’t say how they died. The number of U.S. service members killed in Iraq is now 4,459.
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) — Intelligence officials in Pakistan say U.S. missiles fired in South Waziristan, near the Afghan border, have killed 16 people. The identities of the dead aren’t known, but the targets were suspected militants.
GREER, Ariz. (AP) — More than 2,000 firefighters are battling a huge wildfire in eastern Arizona. The blaze already is 184,000 acres and is likely to get bigger with winds and dry lightning. Firefighters have been able to keep a wildfire in southeastern Arizona from occupied homes. That 100,000-acre fire seems to be holding steady.
So far the fires are confined to eastern Russia
– Fears of repeat disaster as fires rage in Russian east (BBC NEWS, 24 May 2011):
Russia has reported 421 wildfires burning in forests and peat bogs over the past 24 hours, covering an area of 116,098 hectares (450 sq miles).
The fires were mainly confined to remote parts of Siberia and the Urals, with no blazes reported near Moscow and other central Russian cities.
But the area on fire is twice the size of that for the same period last year.
Drought, fires and smog left dozens dead and ruined crops in 2010, and there are fears of a repeat disaster.
Read moreRussia Reports 421 Raging Wildfires, Covering Area Of 116,098 Hectares (450 Sq Miles)
Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) — Western Australia’s state premier, Colin Barnett, declared an area near the state capital of Perth a natural disaster zone after a bushfire raging out of control on the fringes of the city destroyed 59 structures.
Homes, sheds and carports have been destroyed by the blaze, Natasha Thorson, a spokeswoman with the Fire & Emergency Services Authority, or FESA, said in a phone interview today.
The fires started yesterday in the Roleystone and Kelmscott areas in Perth’s south-east from sparks by a machinist using an angle grinder, WAToday.com cited a FESA spokesman, which it didn’t identify, as saying.
More than 100 firefighters are battling the blaze, which is moving at 100 meters an hour in numerous directions with flames reaching three meters, FESA said. The bushfire poses a “threat to lives and homes,” the authority said.
The blaze has burned about 440 hectares, has cut power and closed two schools in the area. Two helicopters are assisting, FESA said. There are no reports of injuries.
Read moreAustralia: Perth Area Declared a Natural Disaster Zone as Wildfire Rages Out-of-Control
Update (on what the media is telling us):
– Thanks as Russia nuke peril fades (The Standard)
“There are no threats from the forest fires to potentially dangerous sites,” Shoigu said. “Potentially dangerous sites are reliably protected.”
The head of nuclear agency Rosatom, Sergei Kiryenko, said the fire menacing the Sarov center, 500 kilometers east of Moscow, had approached the perimeter of the installation before being brought under control. But the risk of a nuclear disaster had receded.
“We can say today for sure that there is no nuclear risk, no radioactive threat and that there is not even an ecological threat on Sarov territory,” he said.
The fires have been sparked by the worst heatwave in Russia’s history, which destroyed a quarter of its crops and blanketed Moscow in a toxic smog.
There were also fears the fires could stir up particles on land contaminated by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, but officials said radiation levels were normal throughout the country.
Public enemy number one, the corporate media everywhere:
– GORDON DUFF: PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE, THE AMERICAN PRESS (Veterans Today):
Another fun story the news has covered up is the fires in Russia. We are being told that the area around Chernobyl is burning and that some radiation is blowing across Europe. What we aren’t told is that the secret city of Mayak, an area with nuclear pollution a thousand times higher than Chernobyl, is on fire also. Waste from decades of building nuclear weapons covers miles of open area, radiation now moving into the atmosphere.
Reliable figures place the output as 4 times higher than the Chernobyl disaster. The Mayak facility, as Nichols tells me, is 15 times larger than Chernobyl and is putting 241 million lethal doses of radiation in the air.
He says that if you are in Europe, its time to “get out of Dodge.”
Now what? Hmmmmhh.
REUTERS / Denis Sinyakov – Forest fires hit areas remaining radioactive since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.
“As of 8/15/2010 all personnel in Russia and the European Union are advised to evacuate immediately.”
(San Francisco) – Russia is burning down this summer. The smoke is engulfing Moscow and the European Union. Embassies are emptying.
What’s the deal?
Thousands of forest fires are burning all over Russia. More importantly, the nuclear weapons factories and reactors around Mayak and the former Soviet Union’s Uranium Project are going up in smoke. The smoke is toxic and radioactive in every possible sense of the words.
Russian forest fires are burning down old H-Bomb factory areas and the Chernobyl poisoned woodlands. This holds the virtual certainty of at least 241,000,000 Lethal Doses of radioactivity becoming air borne during a fire. Due to peculiar nuclear forces the tiny ceramicized radioactive particles stay in the air for months
or even years till they are “rained out” by some form of precipitation.
Snowflake edges are particularly good scavengers of radioactive particles.
Two US Air Force C130s just flew into Moscow. Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab, or one of the seven other nuclear weapons labs in the US, are more than likely involved. Ask yourself this. What on earth could have scared the Russian nuke forces enough to call in their old hated Cold War foe – the US Air Force – for help?
There is a simple way to let the people of the world know what is going on with airborne Chernobyl and Mayak data. We paid for all the data, anyway, whether Russian, American or European Union Data.
Free the Data. Release it to the InterNet all over the world and let people decide for themselves which country is safe enough for their families to live in.
If you are planning a trip to Europe or Russia – don’t go. If you are already there – leave immediately. If you have family or friends there – get them out if you can. This is not a drill. It is the real deal.
Another way to look at the Mayak national sacrifice zone in Russia is that the old Soviet Union manufactured 30,000 global thermonuclear weapons. There were numerous “accidents” at Mayak that weren’t supposed to happen and “officially” never did happen. The government lied, of course.
Thousands of forest fires are burning in Russia around old H-Bomb factories.
The 1,000 sq km around the Mayak bomb factory is one of the most contaminated areas on Earth because the Mayak Uranium Project manufactured the most poisonous substances on Earth for the most lethal weapons on Earth.
Manufacturing thermonuclear weapons is a really nasty business. As far as Weapons of Mass Destruction goes, there are the real McCoy.
As of 8/15/2010 all personnel in Russia and the European Union are advised to evacuate immediately. I repeat. This is not a drill. If you can’t leave, get your kids out. It may be too late already.
See also:
– Wheat Prices Soar On Russia Export Ban, Trade Halted
– Russia Declares State Of Emergy Emergency As Forest Fires Rage
Moscow’s landmarks, including the Kremlin and St Basil’s Cathedral, are shrouded in a thick, acrid haze (AP)
The ministry for emergencies issued an urgent call for volunteers to join fire brigades to bolster the fight against the peat and forest fires raging out of control around Moscow.
Temperatures in Russia have hit records for the time of year on at least six occasions in recent weeks. Forecasters said there would be no respite from temperatures above 97F (36C) for at least another week.
Death rates have escalated steadily since the heatwave began, according to statisticians. “We recorded 14,340 deaths in Moscow in July, that is 4,824 deaths more than in July, 2009,” said Yevgenia Smirnova, an official from the Moscow registry office.
Almost half a million acres are still burning and Nasa images have shown smoke from the fires visible from space (EPA)
Firemen are battling to stop the flames encroaching on the capital. Moscow’s landmarks, including the Kremlin and St Basil’s Cathedral, were shrouded in a thick, acrid haze. Those workers not ordered to stay at home wore masks as they struggled through the streets.
As many as 140 flights were cancelled or delayed as visibility at Moscow’s airports was reduced to 1,148 feet (350 metres). Carbon monoxide in the city’s air rose to as high as 4.8 times the admissible maximum level before tapering off slightly as night fell.
The health ministry advised people to stay indoors, limit physical activity and wear a mask when going outside.
The authorities have warned of the risk of fires reactivating contamination in an area to the south and west of Moscow that was affected by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
The risks posed by the fires encompass dozens of sensitive sites built up in the Soviet era. Military units were mobilised to remove artillery and missiles from bases around the capital and warnings were issued of the peril facing Sarov, a closed city that is home to Russia’s nuclear research headquarters.
Read moreRussian: Heatwave kills 5,000 as wildfires rage totally out of control
Fire approaches houses in the suburb of Drafi, on the mount of Penteli, in Greece on Aug. 23, 2009. Photographer: Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty Images
Aug. 23 (Bloomberg) — Greek firefighters battled a wildfire on the outskirts of the capital Athens that threatened outlying suburbs for a second day, while authorities evacuated hospitals, camping grounds and retirement homes overnight. No casualties were reported.
Strong swirling winds continued to hamper the work of firefighters and aircraft dropping water, Athens Prefect Yannis Sgouras told state NET TV. About 120,000 stremmata (120 square kilometers) have been burned, “a massive ecological catastrophe,” he said.
‘The strength of the winds has increased and the situation remains particularly difficult,” Fire Department spokesman Ioannis Kapakis said in televised statements on NET. From 6:00 a.m. yesterday to 6:00 a.m. today, 83 major fires were reported around the country, with blazes on the islands on Zakynthos, Evia and Skyros among another five considered to be of serious concern, he said.
A fire truck moves away from out of control flames from a bushfire in the Bunyip Sate Forest near the township of Tonimbuk, 125 kilometers (78 miles) west of Melbourne, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2009. Walls of flame roared across southeastern Australia, razing scores of homes, forests and farmland in the sunburned country’s worst wildfire disaster in a quarter century. (AP Photo)
HEALESVILLE, Australia (AP) – Towering flames razed entire towns in southeastern Australia and burned fleeing residents in their cars as the death toll rose to 84 on Sunday, making it the country’s deadliest fire disaster.
At least 700 homes were destroyed in Saturday’s inferno when searing temperatures and wind blasts produced a firestorm that swept across a swath of the country’s Victoria state, where all the deaths occurred.
“Hell in all its fury has visited the good people of Victoria,” Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told reporters as he toured the fire zone on Sunday. “It’s an appalling tragedy for the nation.”
Aerial footage of fires across northern Los Angeles
Three separate wildfires in southern California have destroyed hundreds of homes and forced thousands of people to flee the fast-moving flames.
The fires, to the north, north-west and south of Los Angeles have burnt through dry brush and forest in the suburban canyonlands around the city.
California’s governor has declared states of emergency in Orange, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara counties.
A drop in the wind force has given some relief to the hard-pressed fire crews.
The largest of the fires is in the northern Los Angeles suburb of Sylmar, up against the canyons of the Angeles National Forest.
See map of the California fires
Ten-thousand people were ordered to evacuate their homes as the flames raced through the Oakridge Mobile Home Park late on Friday, destroying about 500 of the structures.
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  Firefighters were braving 50ft flame lengths as they swept across the mobile homes  Los Angeles Fire Captain Steve Ruda  In pictures: Los Angeles wildfire |
“We have never lost in recent times anything close to this number [of homes],” said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
He blamed the spread of the fire on “absolutely atrocious” winds of up to 80 mph (130 km/h) that pushed the fire out of the forests and into the suburbs, jumping wide highways in the process.
“It was an absolute firestorm,” said Los Angeles Fire Department Captain Steve Ruda of the Oakridge blaze.
“Firefighters were braving 50ft flame lengths as they swept across the mobile homes,” he told the Reuters news agency, adding that heat from the flames had melted his firefighters’ hoses to the road.
The Sylmar fire has burnt through 8,000 acres (3,200 hectares) since it broke out late on Friday. Fire officials said it was 20% contained as of late Saturday.
About 2,000 firefighters are using aircraft, helicopters and bulldozers to beat the flames back from populated areas.
Pillars of smoke
Meanwhile, more than 12,000 people were ordered to leave their homes in Orange County, in the south of the Los Angeles urban sprawl, as another fire flared up early on Saturday in the communities of Yorba Linda and Corona.
That fire has so far scorched 2,000 acres (800 hectares) and damaged or destroyed about 100 homes or other buildings.
BIG SUR, Calif. – Thousands of residents north of Sacramento have been told to flee after erratic winds blew embers across wildfire containment lines, the latest setback for already strained fire crews.
Authorities ordered residents of 3,200 homes in Paradise to evacuate their homes Tuesday after fire destroyed 40 houses in the nearby rural community of Concow. Evacuation orders also remained in place for 800 to 1,000 residents from Concow and Yankee Hill, about 85 miles north of Sacramento.
“Right now we’re battling the weather and the erratic winds,” said Todd Simmons, a California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman. “Whatever the winds are doing, that’s pretty much what the fire’s going to do.”
Firefighters also were struggling against a sudden drop in humidity and a spike in temperature as a heat wave forecast to linger until the weekend grips much of the state.About 30 lightning-sparked wildfires in Butte County, where Paradise and Concow are located, have charred 47,000 acres in recent weeks and was about 40 percent contained, officials said.
Fire crews across the state have been trying to cover hundreds of active California wildfires, many of which were ignited by a lightning storm more than two weeks ago. Some 1,450 fires had been contained late Tuesday, but more than 320 were still active, authorities said.
Related article: – California: The War On Wildfires
Read moreCalifornia Wildfire Destroys Homes, Thousands Evacuated
