The damage caused by Washington’s increasingly devastating wildfires hasn’t gone unnoticed in Olympia. Four bills passed this session will take effect next month to help state and local firefighters more effectively prevent and combat wildland fires. Although some funding remains uncertain, legislators hope better collaboration and more prevention efforts will avoid a repeat of the unprecedented wildfire seasons of 2014 and 2015, and perhaps this year.
- PUB DATE: 6/30/2017 7:15:44 AM - SOURCE: Yakima Herald-Republic - Metered Site

Ride along with one of the Los Angeles fast response vehicles (FRVs) in this short video. For more information on the LAFD concept, visit:

Los Angeles (CA) Fire Department Unveils Fast Response Fire Apparatus

With the brittle and dry environment and increasing fire danger, firefighters are responding to a lot of fires in our region. Firefighters say there's no denying it—fire season is here. Benton and Franklin Counties are both currently listed as very high, to extreme fire danger, according to the Department of Natural Resources.
- PUB DATE: 6/30/2017 6:07:40 AM - SOURCE: KEPR-TV CBS 19

A family who took responsibility for a fireworks accident in Graham last July says they faced massive backlash that led them to move out of the neighborhood. On July 4, 2016, then 13-year-old Ryan Skog was setting off fireworks in his backyard with his mother’s supervision, when a mortar tipped over and fired over his neighbor’s fence.
- PUB DATE: 6/30/2017 5:38:37 AM - SOURCE: KIMA-TV CBS 29 Yakima

Nineteen times, the silver bell rang. It was a hot summer day in Arizona's Prescott Valley, at a ceremony to honor the 19 Granite Mountain Hotshots who died 10 days earlier fighting the Yarnell Hill Fire. The bell rang as the names of the firefighters were read in a crowded arena, and the silence between each weighed heavier than the last.
- PUB DATE: 6/30/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: USA Today