By DORANY PINEDA and BRITTANY PETERSON

CABAZON, Calif. (AP) — Mark Whaling and a crew raced up and down a hill in a tanker truck as they battled a wildfire in Los Angeles County, scrambling to get water from a street hydrant in time to stay ahead of flames moving up a ridge. A helicopter flew in to drop water, but it had to fly a long distance to refill — and a fire that might have been stopped went on to destroy homes.

Related Articles

Trump signs executive orders to boost nuclear power, speed up approvals

Louisiana stifles community air monitoring with threat of million-dollar fines, federal lawsuit says

Trees killed by caterpillar outbreak helped to fuel Minnesota wildfires

NOAA predicts ‘above average’ number of storms in hurricane season starting June 1

Bored with manicured lawns, some homeowners adopt No Mow May all year long

As they fought that early 2000s blaze, Whaling says, he spotted a sealed, million-gallon water tank nearby that firefighters had no way of accessing. He thought that was ridiculous.

“We don’t tell fire engines, ‘Protect the city and go find your own water.’ We put fire hydrants every 600 feet all around cities,” said Whaling, who has since retired from the county fire department. “But when it comes to the helicopters, we weren’t supporting them as robustly as we should.”

His frustration sparked an idea: the Heli-Hydrant, a relatively small, open tank that can be rapidly filled with water, enabling helicopters to fill up faster for urban fires rather than flying to sometimes distant lakes or ponds.

As wildfires become more frequent, Whaling’s invention is getting the attention of officials eager to boost preparedness. First used for the 2020 Blue Ridge Fire in Yorba Linda, 10 Heli-Hydrants have been built across Southern California and 16 more are in progress, according to Whaling.

Helicopters are essential for firefighting. They can drop 1,000 gallons of water at once — some much more. That’s far more than hoses can get on a fire all at once, and can be the best way to attack fires that are difficult for ground crews to reach.

But pilots sometimes have to fly a long way to scoop up water, and in drought-prone areas, natural sources can sometimes dry up or diminish so they’re hard to draw from. In Southern California’s Riverside County, helicopters have had to fly up to 10 miles (about 16 kilometers) to find water, eating critical time from battling fires.

An innovative solution

On a remote plot in the Southern California town of Cabazon, contractor Glenn Chavez stood on a ladder and peered into an empty Heli-Hydrant. A radio in hand, he clicked a button to activate the system and watched as water roared into the tank. In about six minutes, it filled with 8,500 gallons.

Chavez, a general contractor, was testing the Cabazon Water District’s latest investment — a second Heli-Hydrant that local officials are counting on to help protect the town. At $300,000, it cost slightly less than the average price of a single home in Cabazon.

“Living in a beautiful desert community, you’re going to have risks of fire,” said Michael Pollack, the district’s general manager. “And to have these Heli-Hydrants is a major advantage. People will have a little bit of comfort knowing that they have another tool for fighting fires in their community.”

Pilots can remotely activate the tanks from half a mile away, with the tank typically filling quickly from a city’s water system. Helicopters can fill up in less than a minute. Once it’s activated, solar panels and backup batteries ensure the system can still be used during power outages. And at night, lights from the tank and a tower nearby guide pilots toward it.

In November, fire responders in San Diego put the product to the test when the 48-acre Garden Fire in Fallbrook, a community known for its avocado groves, prompted evacuation orders and warnings. Helicopters tapped the tank nearly 40 times.

Pilot Ben Brown said its proximity to the fire saved not just time but fuel.

“They’re great for when you don’t have other water sources,” he said. “The more dip sites, especially in some of the more arid environments in the county, the better.”

But they don’t always help

Heli-Hydrants have raised some concerns about their placement in urban areas where houses, buildings and power lines can be obstacles to flight and they might have to squeeze into tighter spaces.

In those cases, firefighters may choose to fly farther to a natural source that gives the helicopter more room, said Warren Voth, a deputy pilot with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. A pilot’s goal is to always to face the wind while entering and exiting an area, for safety, and they need room to accomplish that.

In some cases, the municipal systems needed to fill Heli-Hydrants could go empty during major fires. As the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles burned, three 1-million gallon tanks that helped pressurize city hydrants in the Pacific Palisades ran dry as demand soared and burning pipes leaked water.

Other times, helicopters just can’t access them. When winds are fierce, flying is nearly impossible; hurricane-force winds that supercharged the Los Angeles infernos initially grounded firefighting aircraft. When multiple helicopters respond to large blazes, they can’t all use the Heli-Hydrant. And smoke can make it hard to see it.

Portable water tanks can accomplish some of the things that Heli-Hydrants do, but can require time, people and equipment to set up.

A Heli-Hydrant gives one community hope

Areas where wildland vegetation intersects with human development have always been vulnerable to fires, but more people are living in them today, and climate change is creating conditions that can make these regions drier and more flammable.

Jake Wiley has seen intensifying wildfires devastate his community. Two blazes — in 2007 and 2017 — collectively scorched more than 400 structures in San Diego. The last one forced Wiley, now general manager for the Rainbow Municipal Water District, to evacuate.

That fire also prompted local agencies to install a Heli-Hydrant — and when the Garden Fire erupted in November, it played a big role helping firefighters protect homes.

“It seems like when you’ve seen the worst, you haven’t yet,” Wiley said. “Anything we can do helps.”

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment.

Hill-Murray School broke ground Monday on a new student union that will add more than 7,500 square feet of indoor and outdoor space to the Maplewood campus.

The addition, expected to open by December, will grow the campus dining space, create more flexible collaborative learning spaces and make more room for after-school community and alumni events.

The student union is the first capital project in the private, Catholic school’s comprehensive campaign started in 2023 under President Melissa Dan, Foundation Board Chair OJ Rinehart and Board of Trustees Chair Bill Simpson.

It features 4,225 square feet of indoor and 3,300 square feet of outdoor space and will include a new main entrance that connects the campus chapel, cafeteria and the Nicholas Center, which houses individualized counseling and tutoring services.

The school still must raise around $463,000 to meet its $5.5 million goal planned for the student union, Dan said. The strategic plan calls for the school to raise $40 million in four areas over five years, with more than $7 million planned for capital improvements.

Related Articles

Citing disputes over fairgrounds, Ramsey County Fair canceled for 6th straight year

Battle Creek Waterworks is closed for the summer. Here’s why.

Ramsey County Attorney plans $40k for ‘culturally responsive’ training for sex assault cases

MN Health Department updates fish consumption guidelines for PFAS

Oklahoma man gets 25-year prison term for fatal St. Paul shooting after niece’s wedding

BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgium’s Royal Palace said Friday that Princess Elisabeth, who is first in line to the throne, is waiting to find out whether she can return to Harvard for her second year after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a ban on foreign students at the university.

Related Articles

What issues to watch as ‘big, beautiful bill’ moves to the Senate

Trump’s team is divided on how to tackle the president’s vow to ease sanctions on Syria

Ishiba says he and Trump agreed in a phone call to a ‘productive’ round of trade talks

Trump relishes uttering the outlandish. Here’s where some of his most showstopping comments stand

Apple has had few incentives in the past to start making iPhones in US

The Trump administration on Thursday revoked Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students in its escalating battle with the Ivy League school, saying thousands of students must transfer to other schools or leave the country.

“We are looking into the situation, to see what kind of impact this decision might have on the princess, or not. It’s too early to say right now,” said the palace’s communications head, Xavier Baert.

Baert said that Princess Elisabeth, aged 23, has completed her first year of a graduate school program at Harvard and would spend the summer back in Belgium. “And we’ll have to see what happens next year,” he said.

The princess is the first of four children born to King Philippe and Queen Mathilde, and has been studying for a Master in Public Policy. Last year, she obtained a degree in history and politics at Lincoln College at Oxford in the U.K.

FILE – Belgium’s Crown Princess Elisabeth, center, takes part in a three-day exercise at an Army Commando Training Center in Marche-les-Dames, Belgium, Monday, July 26, 2021. (Frederic Sierakowski, Pool Photo via AP, File)

Harvard enrolls almost 6,800 foreign students at its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, accounting for more than a quarter of its student body. Most are graduate students, coming from more than 100 countries.

The university filed a lawsuit on Friday in federal court in Boston, saying that the Trump administration’s action violates the First Amendment and will have an “immediate and devastating effect for Harvard and more than 7,000 visa holders.”

By MATTHEW DALY and JENNIFER McDERMOTT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed executive orders Friday intended to quadruple domestic production of nuclear power within the next 25 years, a goal experts say the United States is highly unlikely to reach.

To speed up the development of nuclear power, the orders grant the U.S. energy secretary authority to approve advanced reactor designs and projects, taking authority away from the independent safety agency that has regulated the U.S. nuclear industry for five decades.

The order comes as demand for electricity surges amid a boom in energy-hungry data centers and artificial intelligence. Tech companies, venture capitalists, states and others are competing for electricity and straining the nation’s electric grid.

“We’ve got enough electricity to win the AI arms race with China,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said. “What we do in the next five years related to electricity is going to determine the next 50″ years in the industry.

Still, it’s unlikely the U.S. could quadruple its nuclear production in the timeframe the White House specified. The United States lacks any next-generation reactors operating commercially and only two new large reactors have been built from scratch in nearly 50 years. Those two reactors, at a nuclear plant in Georgia, were completed years late and at least $17 billion over budget.

Trump is enthusiastic

At the Oval Office signing, Trump, surrounded by industry executives, called nuclear a “hot industry,” adding, “It’s time for nuclear, and we’re going to do it very big.”

Burgum and other speakers said the industry has stagnated and has been choked by overregulation.

“Mark this day on your calendar. This is going to turn the clock back on over 50 years of overregulation of an industry,” said Burgum, who chairs Trump’s newly formed Energy Dominance Council.

Related Articles

What issues to watch as ‘big, beautiful bill’ moves to the Senate

Trump’s team is divided on how to tackle the president’s vow to ease sanctions on Syria

Ishiba says he and Trump agreed in a phone call to a ‘productive’ round of trade talks

Trump relishes uttering the outlandish. Here’s where some of his most showstopping comments stand

Apple has had few incentives in the past to start making iPhones in US

The orders would reorganize the independent Nuclear Regulatory Commission to ensure quicker reviews of nuclear projects, including an 18-month deadline for the NRC to act on industry applications. The measures also create a pilot program intended to place three new experimental reactors online by July 4, 2026 — 13 months from now — and invoke the Defense Production Act to allow emergency measures to ensure the U.S. has the reactor fuel needed for a modernized nuclear energy sector.

The administration is focused on boosting nuclear as “affordable, reliable, safe and secure power,” said Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. The executive orders send a signal that “America will build again,” Kratsios said. Energy Secretary Chris Wright echoed that sentiment on social media, posting that more reliable, secure and affordable energy sources — like geothermal, nuclear and natural gas — are the key to remaining the world’s energy powerhouse.

Trump has signed a spate of executive orders promoting oil, gas and coal that warm the planet when burned to produce electricity. Nuclear reactors generate electricity without emitting greenhouse gases. Trump said reactors are safe and clean, but did not mention climate benefits.

The order to reorganize the NRC will include significant staff reductions but is not intended to fire NRC commissioners who lead the agency. David Wright, a former South Carolina elected official and utility commissioner, chairs the five-member panel. His term ends June 30, and it is unclear if he will be reappointed.

Critics have trepidations

Critics say the White House moves could compromise safety and violate legal frameworks such as the Atomic Energy Act. Compromising the independence of the NRC or encouraging it to be circumvented entirely could weaken the agency and make regulation less effective, said Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

“Simply put, the U.S. nuclear industry will fail if safety is not made a priority,” he said.

A number of countries are speeding up efforts to license and build a new generation of smaller nuclear reactors to meet a surging demand for electricity and supply it carbon-free. Last year, Congress passed legislation that former President Joe Biden signed to modernize the licensing of new reactor technologies so they can be built faster.

This month, the power company in Ontario, Canada, began building the first of four small nuclear reactors.

Valar Atomics is a nuclear reactor developer in California. Founder and CEO Isaiah Taylor said nuclear development and innovation in the United States has been slowed by too much red tape, while Russia and China are speeding ahead. He said he’s most excited about the mandate for the Energy Department to speed up the pace of innovation.

The NRC is currently reviewing applications from companies and a utility that want to build small nuclear reactors to begin providing power in the early 2030s. Currently, the NRC expects its reviews to take three years or less.

Radiant Nuclear is a clean energy startup based in El Segundo, California, that is building a nuclear microreactor. Chief Operating Officer Tori Shivanandan said the administration’s support for the advanced nuclear industry will help ensure its success, and the executive orders mark a “watershed moment” for nuclear power.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.