Rain aids battle against California wildfire

LOS ANGELES – Rain arrived Wednesday to help in the assault on a 3,800-acre fire in the San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles.

By David McNew, Getty Images

A firefighter covers his face against the heat of advancing flames at the Williams fire in the Angeles National Forest on Tuesday north of Glendora, Calif.

By David McNew, Getty Images

A firefighter covers his face against the heat of advancing flames at the Williams fire in the Angeles National Forest on Tuesday north of Glendora, Calif.

Remnants of Tropical Storm John brought the precipitation and darkened the skies over the Angeles National Forest where firefighters have been working on steep slopes since Sunday to put out a blaze in chaparral that hasn't burned in 15 or 20 years.

With the showers came the risk of dry lightning, which has already started more than 50 fires in California this summer, said National Weather Service specialist Stuart Seto.

The latest fire started northeast of Los Angeles and was 24 percent contained before the rains came, officials said. It was expected to be fully surrounded on Sept. 13.

There were nearly 1,300 firefighters on hand despite the treacherous terrain and slopes between 30 percent and 80 percent. At least five firefighters have sustained minor injuries.

A 25 percent chance of thunderstorms continues in the area through Thursday, Seto said.

Temperatures will decrease a few degrees, but uncomfortable humidity will rise from 20 percent in the morning to as much as 70 percent later in the day, Seto said.

The moisture is the last hurrah from the storm from the south, which got churned up in a low pressure system approaching from the north, Seto explained.

Firefighters can also expect winds from the southwest of about 15 mph, he said. Winds on the fire front could be different, he said, since fires create their own winds.

By the weekend, a high-pressure system should arrive, clearing the skies and raising temperatures a few degrees but lowering humidity, Seto said.

On the fire lines, crews have eight air tankers, 10 helicopters, 68 engines, eight dozers and 11 water tenders.

Firefighters are still looking for a cause. A burned car was found in the area, but it was unknown if the car caused the fire or was just destroyed by it.

As many as 12,000 people were asked to leave the area over the busy Labor Day weekend. About 25 residents of the nearby community of Camp Williams refused to leave.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

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Nevada wildfire crews race against winds

Firefighters battle a wildfire south of Gardnerville, Nev., on Tuesday. The fast-moving blaze near the Nevada-California line destroyed homes and forced evacuations

By Cathleen Allison, AP

WELLINGTON, Nev. (AP) – Fire crews in northern Nevada raced against Mother Nature, trying to secure a fire line Thursday above a second rural community before expected high winds moved in later in the day.

By Cathleen Allison, AP

A home is engulfed by flames from a wildfire south of Gardnerville, Nev., on Tuesday.

By Cathleen Allison, AP

A home is engulfed by flames from a wildfire south of Gardnerville, Nev., on Tuesday.

The Topaz Ranch Estates fire that broke out earlier in the week near the Nevada-California line had burned 7,500 acres and was 15 percent contained as of midday.

A red flag warning for extreme fire danger was in effect through 11 p.m. because of high winds and low humidity.

Two homes and 17 outbuildings were destroyed in the Topaz Ranch Estates community in southern Douglas County on Tuesday when a suspected illegal residential burn from two days earlier was re-ignited by stiff winds, and flames roared through cheat grass, pinion, juniper and sagebrush.

The fire has since moved into the higher elevations of the Pine Nut Mountains near Wellington. A main concern for firefighters was keeping the blaze in the remote mountains and away from the Upper Colony residential area in neighboring Lyon County. Fire officials feared strong winds could push the flames down Rickey Canyon to the homes tucked along the east side of the mountain range.

"So far, so good," said Lyon County Manager Jeff Page around 2 p.m.

If crews could hold the fire in check through the afternoon winds, they were hoping the weather would turn in their favor Friday and Saturday, when the forecast called for much cooler temperatures and a chance of rain and possible snow in the higher elevations.

Officials believe an illegal residential burn over the weekend was re-ignited by gusty winds Tuesday, sparking the blaze.

No deaths or injuries have been reported.

Six helicopters worked to douse the fire from the air as 575 firefighters battled it on the ground. Four bulldozers were helping to build fire breaks and 14 engines were stationed around the area for structure protection.

Meanwhile, in New Mexico, firefighters were being forced to sit on the sidelines Thursday as a massive wildfire that destroyed a dozen homes and several other structures in a small summer community in southwestern New Mexico grew larger and put more structures at risk.

Tripling in size over the last day, the lightning-sparked Whitewater and Baldy fires merged to burn across more than 110 square miles of the Gila National Forest by Thursday.

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Going Against the Green Grain on Natural Gas

HOUSTON—The Environmental Defense Fund is known for its willingness to work with industry on energy and climate-change policies. That inclination is on display more than ever at a major energy conference that kicked off here on Monday with a heavy focus on the development of natural gas.

More than 300 experts and executives from the global energy industry are attending the IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates annual conference, known as CERA Week, and just a handful of them bring an environmental viewpoint to the proceedings. Among those are two experts from New York-based EDF, an influential environmental group that often deviates from its counterparts such as the Sierra Club to partner with fossil-fuel industries.

“You don’t make change by simply talking to people who agree with you,” Mark Brownstein, deputy director of the energy program at EDF, told National Journal Daily after speaking on a panel about natural gas on Monday. “You certainly don’t make change if you’re not knowledgeable about the folks that you’re trying to change.”

EDF President Fred Krupp speaks on another panel, also about natural gas, on Wednesday.

Many environmental groups are critical of natural gas, specifically the controversial method used to extract the recently discovered reserves of shale natural gas all over the country.

Hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as “fracking,” is a process in which large amounts of water, chemicals, and sand are pumped into a well at high pressures to fracture rock and allow natural gas to escape. Concerns persist about water contamination and the climate-change impact of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that escapes during the gas production process.  Natural gas burns 50 percent more cleanly than coal, but less data is available on what impact methane emissions during production are having on climate change.

“If we’re not able to do this correctly, it will fundamentally limit the supply and limit the opportunity,” Brownstein said.

Brownstein was a lone wolf on a panel of six experts; the others were all from the energy sector. Some often looked to Brownstein for the other perspective, with “other” meaning anything besides the views of an energy company or consulting firm.

The experts were discussing a new study of North America’s recently-discovered reserves of shale natural gas. Brownstein worked with industry on the report, which was led by the National Petroleum Council, a federal advisory committee made up of oil and gas executives.

“The most surprising thing to me was actually participating,” Brownstein quipped about the report.

In his closing remarks, Brownstein made a bid to win over critics of natural gas by arguing for its potential to provide the country with bountiful, and comparatively clean, energy.

“Plenty of people out there are betting that it won’t happen and preparing for the eventuality that it won’t,” Brownstein said. “I think it’s up to all of us in the room to, frankly, prove them wrong.”

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