FernieHawk
Active VIP Member
I would like to make a shout out to all the people who helped put out the small wildfire today. It was great to see a bunch of strangers get together for a critical common cause...putting out a wildfire before it got out of control.
It was just North of Big Pines campground, across the lake from Gold Bay. We went by that spot a couple of hours earlier and did not see any human activity or smoke. My wife and I set up on a small beach 6km south and cracked a beer and started to enjoy the sunshine. A while later I noticed some smoke up to the North and kept an eye on it for a bit...the smoke was getting larger by the minute so we packed up the boat to see what was up and if we could be of assistance. When we arrived there was a large group with a bucket brigade going and a few people on shovels and rakes. It appeared that someone was in charge directing people to the hot spots...I got on our shovel for a bit and then joined my wife in the bucket brigade.
I didn't do a head count but i would say there was 50-70 people helping out. Most were in bathing suits, but one young man was in dirt bike gear...he must of been hot. There were pre-teens, teens...men, women and a lot of them did not have any footwear on. There was even a pregnant women in the bucket brigade line.
The wind was low at the time, but if the fire spread to the other side of the road into the Ponderosa Pines, it would have been serious as the winds blew up big a couple of hours later. The fuel for the fire was grass and all the large amount of dry driftwood laying about. Two wildfire trucks showed up just as the group had the fire contained and they finished it off with their pumps.
There's going to be some sore muscles in a lot of campsites tonight.
It was just North of Big Pines campground, across the lake from Gold Bay. We went by that spot a couple of hours earlier and did not see any human activity or smoke. My wife and I set up on a small beach 6km south and cracked a beer and started to enjoy the sunshine. A while later I noticed some smoke up to the North and kept an eye on it for a bit...the smoke was getting larger by the minute so we packed up the boat to see what was up and if we could be of assistance. When we arrived there was a large group with a bucket brigade going and a few people on shovels and rakes. It appeared that someone was in charge directing people to the hot spots...I got on our shovel for a bit and then joined my wife in the bucket brigade.
I didn't do a head count but i would say there was 50-70 people helping out. Most were in bathing suits, but one young man was in dirt bike gear...he must of been hot. There were pre-teens, teens...men, women and a lot of them did not have any footwear on. There was even a pregnant women in the bucket brigade line.
The wind was low at the time, but if the fire spread to the other side of the road into the Ponderosa Pines, it would have been serious as the winds blew up big a couple of hours later. The fuel for the fire was grass and all the large amount of dry driftwood laying about. Two wildfire trucks showed up just as the group had the fire contained and they finished it off with their pumps.
There's going to be some sore muscles in a lot of campsites tonight.
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