This article titled “Los Alamos nuclear laboratory threatened by wildfire” was written by Ed Pilkington, for guardian.co.uk on Wednesday 29th June 2011 18.50 UTC

Teams of firefighters are battling to prevent a wildfire in New Mexico from reaching the Los Alamos National Laboratory, America’s largest and most important research and development site for nuclear weapons.

The fire that started on Sunday, probably as a result of a downed power line, has forced the entire 11,000 population of Los Alamos to be evacuated and has reached within a road of the outer perimeter of the lab on its south-western and western sides. An acre of vacant land on the south-western border of the lab experienced a spot fire, though that was quickly brought under control.

The wildfire has drawn attention to at least 10,000 drums of radioactive waste dating back to the Cold War era which are being stored in a part of the laboratory known as Area G. The 55-gallon drums are stored three deep on concrete under fire-protected tents.

The management of Los Alamos says that the waste is under little danger following the investment in recent years of m of firefighting measures including the thinning of trees and creation of fire breaks.

As a last resort, plastic foam could be used to seal off the drums from incoming flames.

But the prospect of a possible threat to such a sensitive nuclear site has raised alarm in the region, and specially converted planes known as “flying laboratories” are being flown over the area to monitor air quality to detect whether any nuclear particles are entering the atmosphere. No radioactive contaminants have been recorded so far.

“There are fire mitigations at all of our nuclear facilities, and I am confident in our ability to protect all of them. This is a strong team protecting a national treasure”, said the laboratory’s director, Charles McMillan.

The lab was created during the second world war as a secret location for the Manhattan Project, the mission to develop the first atomic bomb. It has since grown into a massive research institute with an annual budget of more than billion covering such diverse studies as nanotechnology, computing and space science.

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Federal authorities failed to follow through on plans to burn away highly flammable brush at the edge of L.A. to prevent raging forest fires.

After battling environmental groups in the courts the U.S. Forest Service finally obtained a permit to do a controlled burn on more than 1,700 acres of Angeles National Forest.

Due to pressure from liberal groups the Feds dragged their feet and only cleared a 193 acres before the wildfires sparked.

Even though this latest blaze has burned more than 5 dozen homes and killed two firefighters, a biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity had this to say (emphasis mine):

iologist Ileene Anderson with the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental organization, said burn permits should be difficult to get because of the potential damage to air quality. Clearing chaparral by hand or machine must be closely scrutinized because it can hurt native species.

Notice the enviro-kooks always look out for everything except human beings. It doesn’t matter how many people or homes burn as long as the “native species” are not harmed.

People in California need to wake the hell up and take their state back from the environmental Marxists and loony progressives. Until they do, California will continue falling apart.

-Chris Jones

(hat tip Mere Rhetoric)

Wildfires scorched more than 2,000 acres in the exclusive community of Malibu today, destroying nearly three-dozen multi-million dollar homes and forcing 10,000 to 15,000 residents to evacuate.

The blazes are less than a mile from a massive fire last month that destroyed more than 1,200 acres and destroyed seven structures and the landmark Malibu Presbyterian Church. More than 1,700 firefighters are battling the fires that broke out about 3:30 a.m., fueled by Santa Ana winds gusting up to 60 mph.

A 10-year-old boy who admitted starting a 38,000-acre fire last month that destroyed 21 homes in northern Los Angeles County will not be charged, prosecutors said Tuesday.

There was no evidence of intent by the boy who accidentally ignited brush outside his home by playing with matches, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

Authorities are referring the case to the Department of Children and Family Services to determine if further steps are necessary. No other information about the investigation was released because the case involves a minor.

It’s a tough call in a situation like this. That boy sparked a blaze that leveled 21 people’s homes and wrecked hundreds of lives, but in the end he’s only 10-years old. Everyone can remember back to when they were that young, and most of us certainly played with matches a time or two.

If my house was burned down I think I’d be angriest at the parents for not watching their son better, but there again it’s hard to blame the parents completely. As anyone with kids knows, you can’t have your eyes on them every second of the day.

So maybe a savage Thailand style caning might be appropriate?

-Chris Jones

Blackwater USA’s “Rapid Response Team” is building a tent city for those who lost their homes near San Diego in the devastating wildfires.

Trucks carrying makeshift quarters for up to 200 people, with tents, cots, toilets, showers, power generators, laundry facilities and a community room with TV, are scheduled to arrive today.

Blackwater officials said they are providing everything free of charge and the city will not have to worry about a thing.

This story will either go unreported by most media outlets or if it is reported, the liberal media will find a way to vilify this act of charity by Blackwater.

Officials blamed a wildfire that consumed more than 38,000 acres and destroyed 21 homes last week on a boy playing with matches, and said they would ask a prosecutor to consider the case.

The boy, whose name and age were not released, admitted to sparking the fire on Oct. 21, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Sgt. Diane Hecht said Tuesday. Ferocious winds helped it quickly spread.

The fire began in an area near Agua Dulce and quickly spread. It was among 15 or so major wildfires that killed 14 people, destroyed some 2,100 homes and blackened 809 square miles from Los Angeles to the Mexican border last week.

Federal agents joined the search for evidence Wednesday in brush-covered Orange County hills where an arsonist is believed to have ignited one of the wildfires devastating Southern California.

In San Bernardino County, a man suspected of starting a small fire was arrested and another man was shot to death by police after he fled officers who approached to see if he might be trying to set a fire.

Wildfires, burning in seven counties, had destroyed about 1,500 homes and caused more than a half-million people to flee since the first blaze began late Saturday. At least two – in Orange and Riverside counties – have been linked to arson.

From Drudge:

According to notes from CNN's Monday news meeting network president Jon Klein tells employees to use the California fire tragedy to "push" their "Planet in Peril" special, but warns reporters not to "irresponsibly link" the fires to "Global Warming."

I didn’t think linking ANYTHING to global warming would be considered “irresponsible” for CNN.

-Chris Jones

More than a dozen wildfires continued to rage unstopped in southern California for a third day today , forcing an estimated 300,000 people to evacuate their homes and blackening over 400 square miles of brushland and suburbs.

Hot, gusting winds made the advancing flames nearly impossible for firefighters to control, officials said. The winds are expected to keep blowing through the day, and perhaps longer.

The worst conditions continued to be in San Diego County, where large sections were under mandatory evacuation orders. Several hundred houses appeared to have been destroyed or heavily damaged, according to the governor’s Office of Emergency Services, and thousands more were in danger.

Officials appealed to residents outside the evacuated areas to stay at home if possible and to limit their use of cellular phones, to keep highways and communication lines clear for emergency use.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said 800 National Guard troops would be diverted from duty on the southern border to assist with evacuation and ground control in the county. The fires, a Hydra with at least 15 separate burns in seven counties fed by gale-force winds, burned some 267,000 acres from Santa Barbara to the Mexican border. Engines and firefighters from as far as Nevada and Arizona were summoned as resources were stretched to the limit.