"Emergency responders in Canada are currently battling more than 180 wildfires in British Columbia amid an intense heat wave that has left hundreds dead in the Pacific Northwest."
"Fireworks bans are being enacted throughout the drought-stricken West as officials worry about wildfires—but in Utah, the situation is complicated by a law as murky as the air after a pyrotechnics display."
"On the heels of one of the worst wildfire years on record, the federal government is struggling to recruit and retain staff as firefighters grapple with low wages, trauma and burnout from increasingly long and intense fire seasons."
"Many of the dead were found alone, in homes without air conditioning or fans. Some were elderly — one as old as 97. The body of an immigrant farm laborer was found in an Oregon nursery."
"In the Santa Catalina Mountains north of Tucson, soil repels water across the burn scar of the 2020 Bighorn Fire. Steep slopes and an imminent monsoon mean the hydrophobic ground is ripe for erosion."
"Brenda and Francis Dairy's small ranch house, tucked into the Oregon woods, was built to withstand a wildfire. The siding was concrete, the roof metal. It didn't matter. On Sept. 7 of last year, as the sky turned dark orange and the air grew thick with smoke, flames tore through nearby trees and engulfed the house entirely."
"President Joe Biden on Wednesday said climate change is driving an increased threat from wildfires as he announced new federal response plans during a meeting with governors from western states facing a record-breaking heat wave."
"Veteran forester Randy Moore has been named chief of the U.S. Forest Service, the first African American to lead the agency in its 116-year history."
"After a forest burns, the resulting erosion can contaminate drinking water supplies for up to a decade."
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