Pamela,
The Peanut Gallery below most online news articles and op-ed pieces can be a fascinating but always frustrating place where ignorance is pooled in vast quantities and trolls abound with no natural predators to keep their numbers in check. As for untermensch like J.A.F. and Don P all I can say is that opinions are like assholes: everybody's got one. That does NOT make them right, though, facts contradicting them notwithstanding. Lake County has a reputation even within the State of Jefferson of being especially backwards and low-life-ish which is not to say there are not plenty of great folks there but even over in Mendocino County which has lots of low-lifes they look down on Lake Countians as even below them. Into this backwards untermensch culture that is very insular and suspicious of the outside world such preposterous urban legends can quickly take off. That being said, it appears the vast majority of Lake County residents recognize the efforts of firefighters on their fire since the start of it. On Wed, Aug 5, 2015 at 9:48 AM, Pamela Alley rnrq@att.net [californiadisasters] <californiadisasters@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
Here's a very typical comment on a Yahoo article about the Rocky fire,and my reply...Do they think these fires just wait for people to come out, and then show off, or what??*********
J.A.F 34 minutes ago
As this disaster goes on here, I continue to wonder why more firefighting efforts weren't put in place sooner. Knowing this area is a tinderbox, right next to a National Forest and a lot of rural land, someone should've said, "we need to hit this hard from the start". We can't fight fires as we did in the past, not in a historic drought, not in areas like this which have the potential to explode. All available resources should be utilized too: non-violent prisoners, National Guard, Military personnel, etc., when a fire is out of control.
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DON P 21 minutes ago
CalFire admitted they were watching their computer models, nuff said
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[Pamela]
Pamela
A little background for you...When Rocky started, there were already a couple of other serious fires up and running in the north state--Wragg, Frog, and Swedes, among others. Resources for Swedes were being denied due to the Rocky start and Wragg demands, for example. You also have to understand that there were several OTHER fires in mopup and final containment phases, which sounds simple but eat ground resources.
Not all of this can be merrily dropped on local agencies, either, which are still covering normal needs like medical and fire in their areas.
So when Rocky started, they hit it hard as they possibly could. They were yanking resources from other fires and mobilizing more by the minute. You should hear the scanner traffic over the northstate about then--it was amazing.
Did you realize that non-violent prisoners are already working their tails off as fire crews, a vital part of the fire team? You cannot just yank people out of jail and hand them a shovel--they need training, and these guys have it. They don't get a lot of credit, but they do one hell of a job.
CALFIRE has been hitting fires very hard this season with upped initial dispatches and personnel. It just hasn't been good enough to combat the absolutely explosive tinderbox conditions.
As soon as it became apparent that resources were going to run short, the National Guard was activated and more resources requested and pulled from all sources.
It's easy to armchair quarterback. But go look at the raw Rocky footage on YouTube, and you tell me....would YOU walk into that? These firefighters do, and they have my absolute unfettered admiration for their guts and determination.
They hit it hard. It just wasn't enough.
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