Let's visit..... (Glendive: scorpion, parks, charge)

[Reziac]

Montanans in action!

Photos: Southern California wildfires - latimes.com
Go to picture #15 " Taro Moraga, a firefighter from Helena, Mont., uses a power saw to help create a fire break around the transmissions towers on top of Mt. Wilson, which is under threat from the Station fire."

(If you can't get at the picture link, use a browser like Mozilla/Firefox that will let you turn off styles so the page appears as plain text, then scroll down to the numbered list. It will now work.)

[Mt-7]

Great photos! The intensity of flame to just turn things to dust. There is another Montana hotshot photo, about #16 I think. Thanks for the link.

[Reziac]

#16 says guys from Monterey CA. Do MT guys wear something different that you recognise?

Yeah, the power of these wildfires is astounding. And if you've never been up close to one ... during the big fires of about 5 years ago I had to drive down over the pass into L.A., right past the worst of it, and some of those flames were a couple hundred feet high -- looked like the mountains were alive! That one came right down to across the street from a friend's house -- he got some scary pictures from that!

These fires aren't as dangerous for the firefighters as wilderness forest fires, tho -- they don't get the huge vertical wind-sucks that asphyxiate everything at ground level, like a forest fire can do.

Until 2 years ago, this used to be a heavy-duty metal-braced bridge (built to withstand flash floods), about 2 miles from where I used to live. That fire ate the roadway and vaporised part of the frame, it was a really hot fire as these things go. Lotta brush used to be in that wash.

[Broz]

Well friends, we made it!! We would like to THANK YOU all for the help and information you have all supplied that made the move easier!!

Been busy as a long tailed cat in a room full of rockingchairs, but we are here and loving it. I did manage to check on a few of my new neighbors the other night. Seem friendly enough, maybe a bit "bull headed"

[AQHA]

Originally Posted by rickers

Good news ! The "cousins" just had a baby. We aren't sure which of the cousins is the father but we do know that a close relative was the mother. Here is a picture of the little guy who will grow up holding true to this proud family tradition of "keeping it in the family"

I haven't been to the porch in a while, congrats on the new addition to the family Rickers!! He looks like his dad... whichever one it turns out to be.

[Mt-7]

Hey, I killed a grasshopper yesterday with that 20 foot shot wasp killer, he will never ruin my windshield again!
Juicy Bas***s!

[Mt-7]

Originally Posted by AQHA

I haven't been to the porch in a while, congrats on the new addition to the family Rickers!! He looks like his dad... whichever one it turns out to be.

Hey neighbor, would that mean you are no longer in the frozen north?

[Mt-7]

Originally Posted by Broz

Well friends, we made it!! We would like to THANK YOU all for the help and information you have all supplied that made the move easier!!

Been busy as a long tailed cat in a room full of rockingchairs, but we are here and loving it. I did manage to check on a few of my new neighbors the other night. Seem friendly enough, maybe a bit "bull headed"

Yes, the #1 reason to move to the big sky state!
Great photo, glad you made it.

[Mt-7]

Originally Posted by Reziac

#16 says guys from Monterey CA. Do MT guys wear something different that you recognise?

Yeah, the power of these wildfires is astounding. And if you've never been up close to one ... during the big fires of about 5 years ago I had to drive down over the pass into L.A., right past the worst of it, and some of those flames were a couple hundred feet high -- looked like the mountains were alive! That one came right down to across the street from a friend's house -- he got some scary pictures from that!

These fires aren't as dangerous for the firefighters as wilderness forest fires, tho -- they don't get the huge vertical wind-sucks that asphyxiate everything at ground level, like a forest fire can do.

Until 2 years ago, this used to be a heavy-duty metal-braced bridge (built to withstand flash floods), about 2 miles from where I used to live. That fire ate the roadway and vaporised part of the frame, it was a really hot fire as these things go. Lotta brush used to be in that wash.

Sorry Rez, I must have had that number wrong but I did see two mentions of Montana fighters, so sad that the two FF were killed, the pictures of the service are really moving. Thanks for the pics of the bridge, makes you think when people do not evacuate what they are thinking!

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by seven of nine

Sorry Rez, I must have had that number wrong but I did see two mentions of Montana fighters, so sad that the two FF were killed, the pictures of the service are really moving. Thanks for the pics of the bridge, makes you think when people do not evacuate what they are thinking!

That they were killed uselessly in a car wreck is worse

Sometimes a neighbourhood is saveable but the firefighters can't be everywhere at once and they officially abandon it... and then you and your neighbours are the only defense it has left. When it's not yet surrounded it is sometimes practical to stay and fight. But your best weapon isn't a hose, it's a chainsaw -- take down a swath of trees and brush and make a firebreak, and make sure nothing growing is near your house. People never seem to think to do that, tho

Then there are neighbourhoods like the canyon off Big Tujunga -- fire was coming down on both sides and there was no way it could be saved if every firefighter in the world was on the scene -- it was going to be engulfed no matter what. That's when staying to fight is suicide. One guy is raising hell with the news media about how firefighters were pulled off Tujunga to go to another fire... well, it didn't matter, that canyon was a goner and staying was just a waste of resources.

Of course if everyone would follow the guidelines and cut back brush around their houses, we wouldn't have these problems! Required clear area used to be 30 feet, now it's 100 feet. You can have the odd tree or whatever but no solid lines of flammables that lead to your house. But in the forested areas this basic fire-safety precaution is mostly ignored, gotta wonder about some people...

Out here the fire crews come through here every year doing brush clearance enforcement... okay, fine, but why on earth they don't use the highway, the dirt road, and the driveway to get to my place escapes me. They bring the big truck down the empty "the map SAYS it's a street" behind me (it's so far from being a street that goats have trouble with it), bump over the dead trees and piles of dirt and fencelines and come crashing onto the dirt road (that actually looks like a road, not a goat track) in front of me... they must be testing the big rig to see how rough of a road it can go on without getting stuck, is all I can figure! Same guys do it every year, so it's not like they don't know the way!