Flutterby™! : 19 heroes

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19 heroes

2013-07-02 20:00:09.775426+00 by meuon 3 comments

19 "hotshots" dead I tip my hat and bow my head in respect, with burning anger about the total lack of some wonderful connected technology calling in a life saving splash of water.

[ related topics: Pyrotechnics ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: made: 2013-07-02 21:03:44.98515+00 by: Dan Lyke

So that news reminded me of seeing a documentary about a bunch of trapped firefighters, which sent me to the Wikipedia list of deadliest firefighter disasters in the United States, and I was reading about the Mann Gulch fire.

Now that was sixty four years ago, but one of the things that struck me was that the thing that saved Wagner Dodge was realizing that he could burn out the fuel locally and create a safe patch. In the heat of the retreat he couldn't convince his crew of this, and they perished, but sometimes the technology isn't the communications to call in an air drop, it's the brilliance of "if I start another fire here first...".

But, yeah: I tip my hat every time the CalFire helicopters and fixed wing aircraft buzz our house protecting our town, and take a moment for the hotshots.

Damn.

#Comment Re: made: 2013-07-02 22:58:41.773585+00 by: topspin

So sad. I know this isn't the usual Flutterby kind of link, but this a good song and video about Mann Gulch.

#Comment Re: made: 2013-07-03 17:47:08.403097+00 by: Dan Lyke

I think that's a Flutterby sort of link. One of my simple pleasures is when people here take conversations in directions that expand my horizons in ways like that.