Posted on 09/21/2020 10:34:43 AM PDT by Twotone
MOLALLA, Ore. (Reuters) - Nicole West steered her bulldozer through the smoldering forest, pushing logs into the underbrush and away from the wildfires ripping through Oregon's Cascade Mountains. Her border collie, Oink, rode shotgun as West and a volunteer crew raced to clear a fire line.
Behind West, on the front lines of the 136,000-acre (55,000-hectare) Riverside fire, two young men pulled a water tank behind their pickup truck, struggling to douse the flames.
These are the men and women of the "Hillbilly Brigade" - about 1,200 in all who came together this past week to fight the state’s biggest fire in a century. They are credited with saving the mountain hamlet of Molalla, an hour’s drive south of Portland, after its 9,000 residents were forced to evacuate.
In a year when ferocious wildfires have killed at least 34 people and burned millions of acres in Oregon, Washington and California, the brigade has pulled off a miracle in the thick forests around Molalla in recent days, residents and fire officials say.
They organized and deployed themselves with little or no help from a small and overwhelmed local fire department - which focused on protecting the town center - or from state and federal agencies that were deployed elsewhere.
"We were left on our own to stop this," said West, a 36-year-old ranch hand, as she briefly paused her dozer late Wednesday afternoon. "There wasn't anybody coming from the state to save us. So we had to save ourselves."
Mike Penunuri, fire marshal for the Molalla fire district, which has just 13 firefighters and 33 volunteers, called the massive ad-hoc effort “amazing.” Penunuri's crews spent the past week hosing down flames that lapped at the town’s edge and battling back fires around farm houses.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I saw a similar report in the CanbyFirst (another local paper.) Reporter said they called themselves the “redneck crew.” I am also in Clackamas County and this is the kind of folks you find out here.
You know the bulldozer operator is gonna be cited for some eco violation as soon as they find out his name.
Loose lips. Sink ships
I particularly liked the Trump sticker on the end of the table in the video clip... They will can the clip as soon as they see it...
FReeper Aunt B got burned out in one of these southern Oregon fires
LOL. She would laugh at you, as she walked away!
True, but her laughter would mean she knows I exist, that is enough for me. As I get older, get a woman to notice I’m around is a victory in itself. LOL!
Thanks the humorous way of bringing me back to reality.
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