Volume 44 - No. 21
May 22, 2014
by lyle e davis
Words fail me.
For someone who writes thousands of words a week, it is hard to find the words to express how proud I am of the the tremendous effort put forth by the firefighters who saved our communities during the horrible week of the firestorms. I am not alone.
As we wander through the streets and communities of North County, residents and business people say the same thing.
Area residents have openly expressed their gratitude for the firefighters. You’re a firefigher in uniform? Come in and have a free meal at a great many restaurants. Repeatedly, people mentioned, “we learned from the 2007 fire.” We sure did. And we got ourselves much better organized and responded with a great deal of magnificent teamwork.
Fire crews were, at one time, battling nine fires across the county. Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency last Wednesday, clearing the way for more resources to help local firefighters. We had four helicopters, eight airplanes and 22 military aircraft being used across the county. Camp Pendleton had 22 helicopters in the air at one time combating the fires – 12 of which were used on county fires, the rest on the fire that torched 20,000+ acres on Camp Pendleton. Third Marine Aircraft Wing helicopters partnered with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to conduct aerial firefighting against several wildfires in San Diego County.
Eight CH-46E Sea Knight helicopters and two CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters were deployed to help contain the fires at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. A CH-46E helicopter can transport a water bucket with a capacity of 325 gallons, while a CH-53E can transport a water bucket The Paper - 760.747.7119
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containing 900 gallons of water to assist in the firefighting.
Cal Fire said the U.S. Forest Service has a contract with the owner of the DC-10, and it's an exclusive contract that has the crew on for six days and off for one. Meanwhile, on the ground, thousands of firefighters worked their exhausted bodies to frightful excess.
A grand, heroic job.
But we can do better, still.
Perhaps our state and/or federal legislators need to open their thinking a bit and consider a very viable option that may save even more property and lives. We may have to get out of parochial thinking and acknowledge that maybe, just
maybe, another country may have the answer we don’t. It may involve dealing with Russia . . . but a good friend of ours, Kent Ballad, who lives in the middle of his forested 70 acres in Indiana, and who is constantly aware of the danger he accepts by living in the middle of a potential tinderbox, thinks it is more than worthwhile and justified:
The Firefighters Continued on Page 2