Las Vegas firefighters quickly extinguished a fire in a northwest Las Vegas home which started at a computer work station located on the second floor.  No one was home when the incident occurred on May 27th, 2012.  There were no reported injuries. 

Fire dispatchers received several calls at 2:22 p.m. that a home in the San Marcos community had some smoke coming from the house.  When firefighters arrived at 11208 Playa Bonita Ave (CC215/Alta), firefighters noticed slight smoke coming from the two story wood frame/stucco home.

Read more...

State has seen triple the number of fires from last year; meteorologists and fire experts say conditions will get worse

By Peter Fimrite
San Francisco Chronicle

SAN FRANCISCO — There already have been more than 800 wildfires in California this year — nearly triple the number for this time last year - prompting state fire officials this week to warn residents to prepare for what could be an infernal summer.

A shortage of rain and snow has left the state unusually dry, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Such dry conditions have led in the past to some of the state's worst fire seasons, which is one reason why Gov. Jerry Brown declared this week Wildfire Awareness Week.

Read more...

Building	Burning	Learning

A record breaking crowd of fire investigators converged on San Luis Obispo for training by some of the best instructors in the nation.  Dr. John DeHaan and Dr. Dave Icove presented the first half of the class on fire scene reconstruction; following the text book that they co-authored.  Retired ATF Agent, Steve Carman, presented the second half of the seminar on fire dynamics specializing in flashover as related to elevated fires.  Kirk McKinzie exposed the students the latest in laser technology for documenting a fire scene.

Click on the captions below the pictures above to see a series of photographs depicting the building, burning and training resulting from the seminar.

Contra Costa County Fire Protection District

Press Release

Late on Friday April 6^th, 62 year old Walnut Creek resident Brent Robert Kastroff was
arrested by Contra Costa County Fire District Investigators and the Walnut Creek Police Department at his home in the community of Rossmoor.

In January of this year, Fire Investigators received information about a small fire that occurred on private property on Vista Del Valle in Lafayette.  The property is a large parcel that contains 3 homes, but the majority of the 90 acres is grass covered land that even when maintained can still pose a wildfire threat to nearby homes and residents due to it’s size and topography. The investigation lead to the discovery of a previously unreported fire in May of 2011 in the same area; however there were no leads in either incident.

Read more...