MWNB

The publication covers common fireline terminology, handling relationships and childcare during the long summer months and how to support firefighters reintegrating to family life once the season slows down.

As the iconic Route 66 turns 100 years old and the United States marks its 250th anniversary, a Pueblo-owned restaurant in New Mexico offers a different way to think about American history.

This year’s already strong El Niño is strengthening, a trend with potentially significant implications for the intense – and now tragic – fire season.

Firefighters will now be able to use N95 masks on the fireline – building on a more limited, voluntary rollout of masking that started last fall. There will also be expanded access to showers, time for routine gear cleaning and so-called “clean air recovery periods” that can limit other risks.

Following the burnover deaths of three wildland firefighters near the Utah-Colorado border last weekend, a top federal fire official has strong words of warning ahead of Independence Day – the single biggest day for human-started fires.

Low morale, staffing woes and health worries are among the top issues shared by hundreds of federal wildland firefighters who responded.

Wildland firefighters face extreme conditions. For those who identify as LGBTQ, there are challenges beyond the fireline. This Pride Month, the Mountain West News Bureau reports on how that community is responding.

Around 2,000 structures are at risk in several states in the Mountain West region as some 2,100 firefighters battle almost two-dozen wildfires across Utah, Nevada, and Idaho, fire officials say.

Both in the United States and around the world, fire seasons in 2025 were relatively light. Yet the loss of lives and property hit historic highs, raising questions about whether acres burned is the best metric to assess devastation caused by wildfires, according to a recent analysis.

Wildfire smoke is associated with a growing list of health impacts. New research now ties it to reproductive harm in bulls – a finding with implications for humans.