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How much water is in plants? The answer can be critical to forecasting wildfires.

Sep 13, 2022
"Fuel moisture" drives wildfires, and the metric can be used to better allocate firefighting resources.
Taylor Zarifis of the Bureau of Land Management in Boise, Idaho, plucks live leaves off  sagebrush to measure fuel moisture levels.
Madelyn Beck/Mountain West News Bureau

California utility PG&E agrees to pay $55 million settlement to avoid fire prosecution

Apr 12, 2022
Attorneys said they decided to pursue a civil prosecution instead of criminal charges to "maximize the return to the fire victims rather than to seek criminal penalties."
The PG&E settlement money will go toward fire prevention but lets the company avoid criminal charges.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

How gift cards are helping survivors of California's deadliest fire

Dec 7, 2018
It's not just cash donations that help after a disaster.
Kimberly Spainhower hugs her daughter Chloe, 13, while her husband Ryan Spainhower (R) searches through the ashes of their burned home in Paradise, California on November 18, 2018.
JOSH EDELSON/AFP/Getty Images

The rekindling of fire lookout towers

Oct 26, 2018
How one state is reinvesting in a century old method to fight wildfires.
A fire lookout tower in Pennsylvania.
Andrei Taranchenko/Flickr

With increased wildfires, utilities in California are trying to pass on the cost of damages to customers

Jan 2, 2018
Lawmakers in California have introduced a bill to make it harder for state utilities to have customers cover the cost of fire damage.
Firefighters assess the scene as a house burns in the Napa wine region of California on Oct. 9, 2017.
JOSH EDELSON/ Getty Images

After Texas fire, business boomed for some

Oct 7, 2015
A wildfire's destruction creates a surge of demand for services and rebuilding.

For public good, not for profit.

As wildfires spread, the contractors are called in

Sep 17, 2015
Outside help is filling the gap between 'what we have and what we need.'