Wildfire-Burned Acres Sets 45-Year High

Lest we think that the Signs of the Times limit themselves to hurricanes and flooding, here is another piece of sobering news that shows us how the world is being increasingly beset with large-scale disasters.

From the AP:

Wildfires across the country have scorched more land in 2006 than in any year since at least 1960, burning an area twice the size of New Jersey.

[...]

As of Wednesday, blazes had torched 8.69 million acres, or 13,584 square miles, just above last year's total of 13,573 square miles, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise. Reliable records were not kept before 1960, officials said. The annual average over the past 10 years is 4.9 million acres.

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