Word: inferno
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...that worried firefighters most. The wildfires that now annually singe Southern California came early this year, spreading slowly from drought-stricken wilderness to the foothills near Los Angeles. Fire season is usually worst in October, when the hot Santa Ana winds blow over the San Gabriel Mountains. But this inferno needed no wind--the Station fire in Angeles National Forest burned more than 100,000 acres (40,500 hectares), threatened thousands of homes and killed two firefighters in the dry heat of late summer. The stillness kept the flames from spreading quickly--a climatologist called it the "Jabba the Hutt...
...more than a week, much of the Angeles National Forest has been an inferno as a ferocious fire, spurred by abnormally high temperatures and single-digit humidity, ripped through steep canyons, dense brush and forest untouched by flames for 60 years. The advancing fire has cut a moonscape swath through the middle of the mountain range that forms a barrier between the greater Los Angeles area and the Mojave Desert...
What the air tankers are dumping is a fire retardant known as slurry, a mixture of mostly water and fertilizer designed to protect trees and other flammable material from flames. The coating clings to vegeation and insulates it from the approaching inferno; the fertilizer helps the damaged areas regrow in the wake of the blaze. The powdery concoction is a key ingredient of a multi-pronged firefighting strategy; after the air drop, bulldozers and ground crews move in to cut a fire break designed to halt the advancing flames...
...many in Greece, the inferno is a case of devastating déjà vu. Almost exactly two years ago, more than 70 Greeks died in a wave of deadly blazes that seemed to sprout almost simultaneously around the country. The government pledged then to improve the country's overstretched fire services. But as they watch live coverage of panicked residents fleeing their homes once again, many Greeks are asking what, if any, lessons were learned from the tragedy in 2007. (Read TIME's 2007 article "Athens Is Burning...
...Church. The Office of State Ethics accuses the Church of breaking Connecticut’s lobbying rules last spring when the Diocese of Bridgeport protested liberal legislation. Distraught, the diocese seeks clemency and asks the court to prohibit OSE from applying these rules to the Church. To quench this inferno, the state legislature should exempt churches from its lobbying rules—because churchgoers aren’t powerbrokers...