Wednesday, September 16, 2020

Burned Up, Burned Out: Resources At Limit



Week after week of spreading wildfires up and down the Pacific coast and inland to the Mountain west have depleted the resources of fire-fighting units to the point that some firefighters are working 65 hour stretches with time for just 20 minute naps. According to the linked report from the Associated Press, only midway through the fire season, states like California, Oregon and Washington are soliciting help from others, having maxed out their resources for the year:
"Fire crews have been summoned from at least nine states and other countries, including Canada and Israel. Hundreds of agreements for agencies to offer mutual assistance have been maxed out at the federal, state and local levels, [Washington State Forrester George Geissler] said.

'We know that there’s really nothing left in the bucket,' Geissler said. 'Our sister agencies to the south in California and Oregon are really struggling.'

Demand for firefighting resources has been high since mid-August, when fire officials bumped the national preparedness level to critical, meaning at least 80% of crews were already committed to fighting fires, and there were few personnel and little equipment to spare."
Sociopathic climate change denier and "climate arsonist" Donald "Sweep The Forests" Trump's one visit to the area was notable in his response to California's Natural Resources Agency chief when he said, "I don't think science knows" the facts on climate change. Knowing the malicious, transactional Trump, it's likely he'll give the "blue" Pacific states short shrift as far as Federal resources are concerned, despite Federal lands / parks / installations accounting for a significant percent of those states' land (CA: 45.4%, OR: 52.3%, WA: 28.6%).

BONUS: Oregon Republican State Senator Fred Girod found his home burned in the Beachie Creek fire. He was one of 11 Rethug senators who blocked climate change legislation last year by refusing to show up so that the state senate had a quorum. Karma burns.

(photo: NBC News)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

About the Oregon nutcases trying to project the crimes of their supporters on to others.
Remember the Malhuer occupation was triggered in part by these whack jobs being caught and convicted for arson.
"In 2012, Dwight Lincoln Hammond, Jr., 73, and Steven Dwight Hammond, 46,[53] were both convicted of two counts of arson on federal land, in relation to two fires they set in 2001 and 2006."
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammond_arson_case)
So just as the true "invasion by caravans" that the looney tunes accuse others of occured when nutcases assembled in Washington state to attck citizens of Portland Or.
So it is with the likely start of these fires with inbred demented donnie supporters starting fires so they could create more grazing land, or more oppurtunity for "salvage" lgging or just a paycheck for fighting fires they have started.
All of those reasons have ben shown to be the causes of wildfires in the NW in the previous years.
But let us not confuse blind ignorance and delusional ideology with reality based upon facts and history.
So this mindless Oregon rep is probably just offering cover for his criminal supporters.