The Williams Flats Fire has hit 40,000 acres as more than 1,000 fire personnel on scene. The blaze remains about 25 percent contained as of Thursday night. Level 3 evacuations are in place southwest of Wilmont Creek to Whitestone Lookout Road. Residents in the Wilmont Creek drainage are under Level 2 notice and all residents and campers along the shoreline of Lake Roosevelt and the Columbia River, from the Falls Creek/Cougar Canyon Road south to Wilmont Creek Road are under Level 1, according to officials.
- PUB DATE: 8/9/2019 12:31:03 AM - SOURCE: iFiberOne

Smokey Bear, the recognizable mascot of wildfire prevention in the United States, turns 75 today. The U.S. Forest Service started the campaign in 1944 and used it to educate the American public on the dangers of forest fires. A live mascot, appropriately named Smokey, was added to the campaign in 1950.
- PUB DATE: 8/9/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: USA Today

An armed man reportedly wearing body armor and pushing a shopping cart at a Walmart store in Missouri on Thursday led a store manager to pull the fire alarm and sent customers fleeing -- but an armed off-duty firefighter was able to detain the man until police officers arrived, Springfield police said.
- PUB DATE: 8/9/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fox News

The thought of flight and the consuming power of fire has fascinated mankind for centuries. Who hasn’t looked up wondering what it would be like to soar among the clouds? Who hasn’t sat mesmerized, staring into a campfire? The translucent red flames reaching toward the sky somehow hold us captive. For a select few, fire and flight go hand in hand.
- PUB DATE: 8/9/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KCET

It's a day meant to be remembered forever in scrapbooks: the first day of kindergarten, when parents walk their child to class for the first time. But for one Phoenix family, it was a bittersweet first day of kindergarten, as one parent was missing. Phoenix firefighter Brian Beck, Jr., tragically lost his battle with occupational cancer in May of this year.
- PUB DATE: 8/9/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: AZFamily.com