Northeast Wisconsin and its surrounding communities turned out in large numbers earlier today to participate in and support the fifth annual 9/11 Memorial Stair Climbat historic Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis. A total of 2,169 area residents, firefighters, and local businesses came together to pay tribute to all of the firefighters who served, and to those who sacrificed their lives, at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. This year’s event raised $110,000 and was recognized as one of the largest stair climbs in the nation. Since its inception, Green Bay Metro Fire Department and Pierce Manufacturing have sponsored the 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb event at Lambeau Field. All proceeds from the event directly benefit the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF) and its important work assisting the families of fallen firefighters (through support networks, conferences, workshops, and scholarships) and reducing firefighter deaths (through educational and training programs). Stair climb participants were given the opportunity to climb the equivalent of 110 stories – the height of the fallen World Trade Center towers – on the steps of Lambeau Field. Each climber was given a badge, with the name and photograph of one of the fallen firefighters so they could climb, symbolically, alongside one of the fallen. Photo Caption: The fifth annual 9/11 Memorial Stair Climbat historic Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis. paid tribute to the firefighters who served, and to those who sacrificed their lives, at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The event raised $110,000 and all proceeds directly benefit the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF). About National Fallen Firefighters Foundation The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization with a Congressional mandate to honor all firefighters who die in the line of duty in the United States. The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation is the only fire service organization that represents every facet of the American fire service – career, volunteer and wildland. The Foundation has created education and training programs to reduce firefighter deaths. The Foundation has no allegiance to any special interest. For more information, visit www.firehero.org.

The US Forest Service has spent more than a whopping $2 billion in order to battle forest fires up and down the country – a perhaps unsurprising record given this has been one of the nation’s worst ever fire seasons. The American West has been completely ravaged by wildfires this summer, and as of the 14th September 2017, there were 64 large fires burning across 10 states. This included 21 major fires in Montana, and 18 in Oregon. In total, there have been 48,607 wildfires at time of writing, which have burned through almost 13,000 square miles of land (33,586 square kilometres). As such, the fires have massively stretched firefighting resources, ripped through over 500 homes and even triggered health alerts, as smoke drifted in major Western cities, choking residents. The Forest Service, which is part of the US Department of Agriculture, is the nation’s first port of call when it comes to firefighting agencies. The added impetus on firefighting means that money normally reserved for insect control, prescribed burns, and other prevention efforts are diverted towards putting out fires. As a result of this, small trees and vegetation stay in the forest for future blazes to feed on. For years, the Agriculture Department have been asking Congress to change the way that firefighting is funded, primarily so that the Forest Service doesn’t have to raid non-fire programs in bad years. The spending figure, which was announced on the 14th of September, is the first time ever that wildfire spending by the Forest Service has broken through the $2bn barrier – previously, the record was $1.7bn in 2015. To compound matters further, those figures don’t include spending from Interior Department agencies – such as the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management – and spending by both state and local governments are also excluded. According to the Interior Department, at least $391m was spent with several weeks left in the fire season, while the previous record for combined federal firefighting costs was also in 2015, and that figure was £2.1bn. In previous years, there have been larger areas burned, however there have been lower costs in order to fight fires. This year’s fires have brought back discussions about thinning overgrown forests in order to reduce risk.

Citing the need to have an arm’s-length view on policy issues that impact fire, life and electrical safety, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has announced the launch of the NFPA Fire & Life Safety Policy Institute. The Policy Institute will study a range of issues and provide guidance and information to policymakers on the best approaches governments can take to improve safety for the citizens they serve. “We have made tremendous progress in reducing loss from fire since NFPA’s inception, but we are painfully reminded every day that there is more to be done,” said NFPA President Jim Pauley. According to NFPA, in 2016 U.S. fire departments responded to a fire every 24 seconds; one structure fire was reported every 60 seconds. While the number of civilian fire deaths in the U.S. has decreased by 54 percent from 7,395 in 1977 to 3,390 in 2016, fire still claimed nine lives a day and caused almost $11 billion in direct property damage. There have been recent situations where some combination of code adoption, enforcement and awareness efforts were woefully inadequate for one reason or another, resulting in tragedy. These include the Oakland Ghost Ship fire, which killed 36 people; the London Grenfell apartment fire, which took the lives of nearly 80 people; and a number of recent fires in buildings under construction. “It takes a full fire prevention and protection system to reduce loss, and either intentionally or unintentionally that system has been broken. And the public, who believes this system exists and relies on it, has been let down,” said Pauley. “We can do better.” Pauley said policymakers are key to reducing loss from fire and other hazards, and the purpose of the NFPA Fire & Life Safety Policy Institute is to help policymakers keep their communities safe by providing recommended practices, proposed solutions and other guidance to support and sustain strong fire prevention and protection systems. The Policy Institute will be led by Meghan Housewright who served in NFPA’s government affairs office since March 2011.

Contra Costa County fire officials are asking for help from the public in order to try and find out who started five suspicious vegetation fires on the 10th September in Antioch, California. Between around 5:30pm and 11:30pm in an area less than a mile in length between L and Hargrove streets, all five fires took place, which has led the authorities to believe it could be arson. At 5:38pm at Parsons Lane and Lela Way, the first fire was reported according to the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District Captain Lisa Martinez, while the second was at Somerset Place and Plymouth Lane – just northeast of the first – at 7:58pm. The blaze in question burned a segment of a fence and a home at 1601 Somerset Place, but it then looked like the possible arsonist headed west as another fire was reported near the railroad tracks at Biglow Drive and Gary Avenue at 9:11pm. The fourth fire was further west at 56 E. Madill Street and was reported at 11pm, and the damage from that fire may have burned a structure on Alpha Way. Further west yet at Holly Lane at Fitzuren Road, the fifth and final fire was called in at 11:37pm. There was also a fire by  Lone Tree Way, which investigators state that it initially started out as a vegetation fire, which spread to a tree and then to a second floor of a church, burning through chairs, air conditioners and computers. The Fire Marshal for the area, Robert Marshall, said that investigators are still trying to figure out if this fire is related to the other suspicious fires in the region. Thankfully, no-one was injured in the fires, however, investigators – at time of writing – still have no leads in the case. The fires were deemed suspicious due to their location and the time of the day they took place.

HOUSTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is investigating whether chemical maker Arkema SA followed safety rules at its Crosby, Texas, plant where chemical containers caught fire and burned for days after flooding from Hurricane Harvey, an EPA official said on Monday. The EPA sent Arkema a letter asking for information that would help the agency determine whether the plant had followed chemical accident prevention rules and other parts of the Clean Air Act, according to a copy of the letter that was provided to Reuters by the EPA official, who did not want to be named. Containers holding volatile organic chemicals began to burn on Aug. 31, after flooding from Harvey knocked out power to the plant. Arkema’s North America chief executive warned a day earlier there was no way to prevent the chemicals from igniting after the plant’s cooling systems stopped operating and its workers evacuated. Arkema representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Sept. 7 letter, from the EPA’s Enforcement Division director, Cheryl Seager, said the company had 10 days after receiving it to comply with the agency’s request. “EPA may use any information submitted in response to this request in an administrative, civil or criminal action,” Seager wrote. The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Brock Long, said on Aug. 31 that the plume of smoke from the plant fires was “incredibly dangerous.” An Arkema official said that same day the plant’s fires did not constitute a chemical release, but the smoke could irritate the eyes, skin and lungs. Containers at the plant, which each held around 500,000 pounds of organic peroxides, burned for days, leading the plant’s operators to evacuate the area around the plant and carry out a controlled burn of the remaining chemicals that had not yet ignited on their own. Police and firefighters who responded to the fires are suing Arkema in a Texas county court, claiming negligence led to the fires and caused the first responders “serious bodily injuries” when they inhaled smoke. The first responders filed their lawsuit the same day that Seager sent her letter. “We deeply regret that anyone suffered harm as a result of the havoc wreaked on our plant by Hurricane Harvey,” the company said in a statement in response to the lawsuit. The EPA is also testing areas around the plant for pollutants. It announced on Saturday it had not found any volatile chemicals in water runoff samples collected from the plant.

​Hawaii County firefighters had to respond to two separate fires over the 9th and 10th of September, with one taking place in the volcano district, while the the other was in Pepe’ekeo. The first blaze broke out at a home on Nahelenani Street in Volcano at around 6:15pm on the 9th September, and when the fire crews arrived on the scene, the single-story home was already fully engulfed in flames. At the time the fire started, three people were inside, which left one adult male suffering from burns as a result of trying to put out the fire, tot he point he was taken to Hilo Medical Center in serious condition. The other two residents were both taken to the hospital for precautionary measures, and both of which were children. After 20 minutes, two crews successfully managed to get the fire under control – which at time of writing, remains a mystery in the sense it’s unclear as to what started it – with the fire being fully extinguished at around 8:20pm, having caused around $80,000 worth of damage. At around 5:30am on the 10th September, fire crews were deployed to the Kauhaleolu Apartments in Pepe’ekeo, and after arriving at the two story building in question, fire crews not only found the upper floors completely involved in the blazes, but the fire was also threatening nearby buildings. Thankfully, all residents successfully managed to escape the building, but eight people had to be taken to the Hilo Medical Center with undisclosed injuries. Investigators have since ruled that unattended cooking started the blaze, and firefighters had it extinguished in half an hour. At present, a damage estimate wasn’t immediately available, and displaced residents are being aided by the American Red Cross.