Posted on 07/17/2017 5:53:08 AM PDT by rktman
I never get used to it even though it happens every year – raging wildfires across towns, counties and states.
City people cannot fully appreciate the horror of such fires, but those of us who live in areas where wild nature is part of the daily landscape know how devastating and dangerous such conflagrations are.
I know it firsthand. While covering a fire as a reporter in the Malibu hills with a news camera crew, we were on a hilltop with the firefighters when suddenly the fire turned and jumped the canyon, right over us. We were surrounded, isolated and without the water trucks.
When I looked up at the sky, all I could see was sheets of flame. We were in the middle of a firestorm with no way out. Fortunately, it didn’t last, or I wouldn’t be here writing this.
I’ve never forgotten it, and I have great respect for the fires and the men who fight them.
Whether the fires are man-caused – intentional or not – or whether nature itself sparks the flames – dry lightening being the most dangerous – the end result is that the flames take the upper hand, destroying virtually everything in their path. The best residents can do is try to escape – with their animals, if possible – ahead of the destruction, leaving the firefighters to use whatever means they have to slow the flames and hopefully prevent more damage.
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
I wish we could donate some of our rain.
We’ve been inundated. it’s beyond ridiculous.
I know right. Feast of famine. I heard thunder last week but knew there was minimal rain coming with it. About 3 drops on the windshield and some lightning that started a small fire a a few miles west of here. Lucky it didn’t ever grow.
“”I wish we could donate some of our rain.
We’ve been inundated. it’s beyond ridiculous””
Same here in GA. We had a storm in the night - started at 4 a.m., and I thought it would never stop. We have had them nearly every day for the past couple of months but it rains and then the sun comes out. The WX radio went off once with a warning about a river near flood stage. I turned the TV on to get the latest report and then decided to read until it quieted down.
Grew up in upstate NY, moved to CA when I was 21 and always missed thunder storms. Retired and moved to GA and have had more thunder storms here in 10 years than probably in my 21 years in NY State. They can stop any time!!!
We’ve had some incredible downpours.
Everything here is at the highest water levels I’ve ever seen.
The forecast is showing it letting up some.
An actual 2-3 days of relative rain free weather before the next batch.
Hubby was a watershed expert before he retired. His strike engine was always the first out. Never knew when or if he was coming home. So now we sit and watch the fires on the news and he says.....don’t know why that one got away. Put it out 50 times. Easy. You backfire here, wait for it to jump there and then back it up there. Then you go have coffee. So I was talking to one of the Deputy Chiefs still working about the major fires we’ve had and he said....too many newbies that have never fought those fires before. The experienced guys are all gone now. The county is not stressing watershed like they used to.
Doesn’t make sense to me but he’s in the thick of it and would know. We’ve had some really bad fires the last couple of years.
Just got back from a week in Vegas...hit 115 at one point. It was hot!, but didn’t bother me much even though I spent a fair amount of time outside - (though I wouldn’t want to be doing manual labor outside in it all day).
We’re making a run down soon and I gotta get one of those cans of AC recharge for the truck before we head out. LOL!
I wonder if it was a case of, 'Get rid of all those experienced people, they're too expensive! Anybody can do that job!'
That's what happened to me in my job, after 24 years. My former boss hired two young women to replace me, both together costing less than me. Of course, they didn't know what they were doing, and didn't want to work as hard or as long as I did. They both quit within three months. Company had to hire someone who cost even more that I did to clean up the mess.
No. They’re just all old and beat up now. But since a lot of them were all hired within the same 10 period time table they all retired within 5 yrs of each other. It was like there was a mass exodus of all the real experienced watershed firefighters. The county hired a lot of new guys fast and was promoting guys with only 2 years experience to Captain. They’re lucky no one has died yet. I think that’s one of the reasons the department decided they no longer wanted to be big in watershed fires. Our guys used to go all over the country. Hubby was a division boss on a 350 crew of army guys in Montana for a month once. They no longer do that now.
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