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Residents Ordered to Evacuate as Southern California Wildfire Rages

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Photo Credit: APAn out-of-control wildfire growing with great speed in Southern California mountains Wednesday night burned homes, forced the evacuation of several mountain communities and left three people including two firefighters injured.

The fire broke out about 2 p.m. near Banning and surge to at least 6,000 acres, or more than 9 square miles, within a few hours, state fire officials said.

One civilian was burned and airlifted to a hospital, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said in a statement. Two firefighters were also injured and both were taken to hospitals by ambulance. Officials would give no further details on the injuries.

Fire officials said about a dozen structures were damaged or destroyed, but could not say how many were homes. Footage from TV news helicopters and photos from the scene showed several houses in flames.

They include the Twin Pines home of Dave Clark, whose parents were killed in a house fire in Riverside in April 2012 the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported. Prosecutors alleged Clark’s sister Deborah Clark set the fire, and she was awaiting a mental-competency hearing to see if she was competent to stand trial for her parents’ murder in a case that has received extensive local media coverage.

Read more from this story HERE.

At Least 19 Firefighters Dead Fighting Arizona Wildfires (+video)

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Photo Credit: Cece N Mando Aguirre

Photo Credit: Cece N Mando Aguirre

By Fox News 10. Prescott Fire Department confirmed 19 firefighters have died while battling the Yarnell Hill Fire on Sunday night. They’re part of the Prescott Granite Mountain Hotshots.

The firefighters reportedly got near the front lines of the fire and somehow the fire changed direction and they became caught up in it.

We’re told they tried to get under their protective covers, but didn’t make it.

The wildfire was likely caused by a lightning strike Saturday night.

The Yarnell Hill Fire, about 35 miles southwest of Prescott, has burned about 2,000 acres and forced the evacuation of 50 homes. Read more from this story HERE.

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19 firefighters dead in Yarnell Hill Fire

By Jackee Coe and Laurie Merrill. Arizona forestry officials confirmed Sunday night that 19 firefighters have died in the Yarnell Hill Fire that has ripped through half of the town, sent residents to Prescott for safety and given the state its worst wildfire firefighter tragedy.

“It’s a dark day,” said Mike Reichling, Arizona State Forestry Division spokesman.

Reichling said the 19 firefighters were found in an area that also had 19 fire shelters deployed. Some of the firefighters were inside a shelter, which is typically used as a last resort to withstand the fire as it blows over. Some of the crew members were found outside the shelters.

Officials said 18 of the dead were members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots team. It’s unknown which fire crew the 19th firefighter belonged to. The firefighters are part of a team that is typically sent in first to help cut off the fire, Reichling said.

“They were up there doing what they normally do,” he said. Read more from this story HERE.

Expert Warns Terrorists May be Setting Wildfires Across American West

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Colorado’s Black Forest fire is barely contained at latest reports and has killed at least two people while consuming hundreds of homes and other structures and forcing the evacuation of more than 38,000 people, but a dozen other significant fires are also burning across the country, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

Colorado has two other active fires besides the Black Forest blaze, while New Mexico has five, California and Oregon each have two, and Idaho has one. The NIFC has counted 19,472 fires through June 14, compared with 24,198 for the same Jan. 1-June 14 period in 2012.

The NIFC’s historical data shows suggests no consistent pattern of increase or decrease of during the past decade, but wildfires can be categorized in a variety of ways and some national security experts warn that terrorists associated with al Qaeda and other radical Muslim outfits view such conflagrations as tools in their war against the U.S., Israel and Europe.

Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld of the New York-based American Center for Democracy’s Economic Warfare Institute warns that last July “al-Qaeda’s English-language online magazine, Inspire, published an article called ‘It Is of Your Freedom to Ignite a Firebomb,’ which featured instructions on how to build an incendiary bomb to light forests on fire.

Read more from this story HERE.

Colorado fire evacuees targeted by criminals

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Last week we wrote an article about 10 Disturbing SHTF Threats that most Preppers Haven’t Prepared For. While checking out the news on the Wildfires in Colorado, I stumbled on a story that reenforced some of what I wrote last week.

As some evacuees from the Waldo Canyon Fire in Colorado were allowed to return to their homes yesterday, many found their homes looted and burglarized. So far at least 22 families near Waldo Canyon have reported that their homes have been burglarized. The number is expected to climb as more evacuees are allowed to return to their homes.

The evacuated homes weren’t the only criminal targets. Police in Colorado Springs have confirmed that as many as 60 vehicles have also been burglarized at nearby evacuation centers and hotels.

Another one of the topics that we discussed last week was the dangers posed from criminals pretending to be Law Enforcement Officials. During a catastrophic event we suggested that you would likely see criminals preying on the innocent by pretending to be either police officers or military officers.

It seems this scenario may have happened during the Colorado Springs Fire. Colorado Springs police have arrested at least two men in separate incidents, where they found the men impersonating a firefighter, at the Waldo Canyon fire. Both men were found behind fire lines pretending to be firefighters.

Read more of this story HERE.