Posted on 09/07/2011 1:01:08 PM PDT by DFG
Firefighting-trained volunteers from around the state converged on Bastrop and Smithville Tuesday to lend a hand to the beleaguered local firefighters battling the Bastrop County Complex Fire — only to be sent away as federal officials arrived at the scene and took command, apparently because local officials never made a formal request for volunteers.
“We were at the station getting set up into strike teams, and this guy came up and said that the U.S. Forest Service had ‘assumed control of the situation, and that ‘If you don’t have a vehicle that squirts water, go home,’” said Gordon Greer of Kirbyville, who drove all night Monday to arrive in the town beset by the worst wildfire in Texas history. “You’ve got guys who had driven all night long from Corpus Christi and Brownsville on their own dime, and they turned them away. He was really a (bleep) about it.
“There was a whole line of beige cars that came in this morning, tinted windows and such,” Greer said.
Read the whole thing here. Texas has a very large base of highly-trained volunteer firefighters. Just the sort of thing that would be really helpful if, say, there were over 100,000 acres ablaze. Also, though, just the sort of thing that makes lots of state and federal employees redundant.
Apparently the gov’t has grounded a fleet of fire bombers in CA that could be put to use too. CF all the way around on the part of Zer0.
PERRY IS EVIL!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m joking. They’re had these headlines since yesterday saying it’s Perry’s fault for the “contract dispute” keeping the belly dumpers on the ground in CA, and how PERRY, EVIL ORC THAT HE IS, cut the fire dept by 75 percent? I KNOW these fires are arson, politically motivated.
“the U.S. Forest Service had ‘assumed control of the situation,”
Odd,, it’s not in a national forest. It’s almost all private land there.
Ping.
Texans don't need no stinkin' formal request. If there's a need, we go to it without submitting forms in triplicate. The local tv stations have been asking for firefighters to come help and that's about as formal as we podunk back woods rednecks get. Texas, secede!
This bein’ Texas, I figured the firefighters would pitch in anyway (and it wouldn’t surprise me if some did). We tend to mend our own fences down here.
Colonel, USAFR
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Two words, union contractors...federal money always goes to the unions first. And NONE of the VFD’s that have been there fighting these fires since early Sunday morning will be awarded any of that money. I detest these b’ds.
The same crap happened on private land during the fires this Spring in the Big Bend region.
BINGO! There's a joke going around that there needs to be a political campaign poster with Perry lighting a match for votes.
My first thought
You’re probably right.
And doesn’t this remind us of the coast guard boats in Louisiana that sent those oil collection boats back to port because they didn’t have enough life preservers? Hell, had anyone fell overboard they could have floated on the damned oil!!
This is FUBAR and SNAFU as ONLY the Feds can produce.
Obama just plain plays dirty.
I wouldn’t be surprised, either. Who knew a “scorched earth policy” would be so literal?
The Alinsky way is to never let a crisis go to waste. So, now we have:
1) The State of Texas (red) which Bozo hates, under extreme drought conditions.
2) High winds over the weekend from TS Lee.
3) Set some fires throughout the state.
4) Send the Feds in when it gets really bad, then turn away volunteers.
5) Watch the state burn down, then blame Gov. Perry.
Voila!
I don’t know who Bozo thinks he’s kidding. He’s going to make us despise him more (if that’s possible).
And for those stating it was a lot or arson...pull-pucky. Many of these fires were causes by power lines slapping together and sparking. We had a lot of those in the Houston area alone. The news even interviewed a couple of guys who put out the POWERLINE fires with their water-hoses (not real bright). Plus it was Labor Day weekend. Lots of camping...cookouts...etc.
As a meteorologist...I can tell you...no arson was needed. We are in exceptional drought over 81% of the state...the humidity was in the low 20's...the winds were high...the fuels were dry...and people were outside camping and cooking.
Add to that the Feds got involved with their union contracts. Enough said.
It’s political: Volunteers are not paid, and if their efforts averted a disaster, then that would diminish the authority of the “professionals” to demand a higher (or unDiminished) budget.
It’s money and politics over community.
Professionals generally hate volunteers, and many times they hate the citizenry, too.
The US Forest Service has incident response teams. They're better than most, and have been called to action for many incidents. They responded to Katrina, to the Columbia Shuttle Disaster, and to floods, fires, and other disasters. There was even a team sent to help after 9/11.
They work at state and federal level to respond to fires and other incidents. It's an agreement they have with the states. Since wildland fires can and do have an impact on all lands, public and private, they do what they can.
http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/ (see the "Cohesive Strategy" section at the bottom of the page)
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