Wildland firefighters

The monthly National Interagency Fire Center outlooks are typically staid documents, providing just-the-facts analysis. But the latest is superlative-laden as it describes record-low snowpacks, record-early snow melt and record-high temperatures.

The 11 senators and representatives - all Democrats - said that the consolidation of four Department of Interior agencies’ wildfire programs is being done “without adequate analysis, transparency, or planning to prevent disruption during what is expected to be a significant fire season or to safeguard long-term wildfire preparedness.”

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

President Donald Trump’s administration has continued to maintain that it has adequate resources and staffing to manage wildfire preparedness and response on federal lands.

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.”

Wildfire and other emergency response personnel will continue working during the federal government shutdown that began this week, but advocates warn that those workers could still be impacted.

Earlier this year, the National Firefighter Registry for Cancer (NFR) went offline in the wake of massive layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services. But since restarting in May, enrollment has surged by roughly 8,000.

The Kootenai County Sheriff's Office provided an update late Sunday night on the fire and shooting that happened on Canfield Mountain.

After being shut down “indefinitely” at the start of April, the registration portal of the National Firefighter Registry for Cancer is operational again. The registry is considered by many to be one of the largest and most promising efforts to further understand cancer risks among firefighters, including wildland firefighters.

A decision from the Trump Administration removed about 2,000 members of the U.S. Forest Services. Now agencies that work directly with them on wildfire management say they have concerns.