There has been a lot of news reporting lately about all the houses burning down in the deep woods out west with all the wildfires. Last night another report was filed (HERE) about 12 houses being consumed, and 200 more evacuated, near the entrance to Yosemite National Park.
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AP photo
My response is, “Ok, so what?” When you go plant yourself in the middle of a forest, you are susceptible to being burned out. I agree, it’s a shame when it happens. It’s always sad to see someone lose all of their possessions and be left stranded in the middle of nowhere with nothing more than the clothes you’re wearing. But that’s a known and accepted risk that you take when you choose to live in an isolated area that is fire-prone.
This has been happening for 150 years, ever since we started settling the western territories. The Great Peshtigo fire in 1871 consumed 12 entire towns in the Wisconsin forests. But there is a new factor being tossed into the forest fire stew that is complicating the situation.
We have a maturing population group that is usually referred to as the Yuppie generation, moving out into the woodlands where they can enjoy nature and peace and whatever. California is especially plagued with this migration to the wilds by people who don’t know what they are getting into. They bring with them a sense of entitlement that demands and expects somebody else to take care of them at all times while they’re making the proper wine selection for dinner.
After seeing entire neighborhoods burning up over the past two years, they are demanding the state and counties to stock the forests with fire departments. It matters not a whit that California is technically bankrupt, these are their houses we’re talking about, for gosh sakes.
Falling right in step, earlier this month Gov. Schwarzenneger proposed adding still another tax on every homeowner and business in the state to buy hundreds of fire engines and staff them year-round throughout the wildlands. (see the Firegeezer report HERE.) Hey, don’t knock it. This is good for us. A jump in sales of fire engines, just in time to help out a shaky business climate in the firetruck factories. More firefighters means more union dues collected. Uniform sales, Halligan bar vendors, and scores of new stations subscribing to Firehouse Magazine. Keep the home fires burning, as they say.
Now let’s get ready for our own home fires. We need to get this equipment checked out and I’ll go start the coffee.
Today’s lunch will be the always-popular Krispy-Kreme bacon cheeseburgers:
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