Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) is interviewed during a tour of 1 Sun Solar Electric Wednesday, June 2, 2021.
Thursday, Oct. 21, 2021 | 12:12 p.m.
Nevada Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen and Wyoming Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis are introducing bipartisan legislation that would direct the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to establish a new program to improve wildfire forecasting and detection, Rosen’s office announced Thursday morning in a statement.
The Fire Information and Reaction Enhancement (FIRE) Act aims to reduce the loss of life, injury and property as well as economic damage caused by wildfires.
“We’re seeing the increasingly harmful and destructive impact of wildfires in our communities all across the country,” Rosen said in the statement, “with 17 different large wildfires currently burning — particularly in the western United States.”
The program would develop and extend accurate wildfire forecasts and warnings, and it would include development, testing and deployment of satellite detection products, grid-based assessments and fire modeling systems, according to the statement.
Firefighters and communities at risk in Nevada need better access to the most up-to-date and accurate wildfire forecast information, said Rosen, who along with Lummis is a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
“It is critical to provide our wildland firefighters and land managers the tools they need to actively track and combat potential wildfires before they get out of control,” Lummis said in the statement. “Focusing resources in NOAA, as this legislation directs, will do just that. I am proud to work with Sen. Rosen on this bipartisan piece of legislation that will help make Wyoming, and the rest of the country, a safer place."
