California Fire

After living in the CA foothills for years and watching these firemen respond to forest fires and home fires and yard fires over the years, the comments about training and send them back to school better not be voiced in my presence - these guys respond immediately and with everything they have, including endangering their own lives. We have nothing but respect for them, and we know a lot of fire-fighters personally, and have assisted with trucks and equipment and water collection at times as well.

SO, you guys complaining about fire-fighters better sit at some other campfire if that's how you think. You can't possibly judge from those photos how or what that one fire-fighter was protecting, nor can you tell how close he is to that RV.

We tip our caps to every single one of these men and women who engage in fire protection.

This "was" the area of the Sycamore Valley campground at Point Mugu State Park
no TC Camping at the beach this summer.

JumboJet wrote:
Someone did not move fast enough.......

Life and limb are more important than things.

My first reaction when I saw this picture was "That would suck!".

Two things that really hit home - That is a Lance AND a Dodge RAM!

My old TC:

After being to many fires I can say that a picture does not tell everything. He is NOT putting out the burnt vehicles, looks like he is protecting something else that you cannot see. Also you do not know why he was there so please do not judge - the tanks may have already blew.

As for moving vehicles, sure do it - if you are around. If this was an RV storage area more than likely the owners were not around and were probably fleeing the fire without worrying about the RV - an RV can be replaced a life cannot!

Buzzcut is right, unless you were on the scene as it was happening you can only make assumptions and we all know the definition of assume. I have been a firefighter for 25 years (recently retired) and been involved in many incident debriefs after the fact. There is always room for improvement, but that is learned after the fact using 20/20 hindsight, not during the incident when you have no idea what is going to happen in the next 30 seconds let alone 24 hours. By looking at the photo I would guess that the propane tanks on both of those RV's had already vented and the risk of explosion had passed. In addition the fireman is abviously protecting some exposure we can not see, which may have been a building or another RV but we have no way of know without further information.

my buddy shot these as he was bugging out in Camarillo Springs




the rv storage lot

HVAC from the picture how do you know the tanks didn't already go off? do you know the storage facility rules on full vs empty tanks? Do you see where he is flowing water, it's not on the RV's perhaps he is protecting and exposure that is out of frame. We do our job out West very well. That fire started at 9 am and blew up to 7000 acres by evening driven by 50 mph winds, its over 10,000 acres. Nobody died or was injured, 15 homes had minor damage none were burned.
info http://fire.countyofventura.org/

I'm sure you did your job very well. the 925 fire fighters on the line are doing theirs very well too.

Amazing - a picture is worth a 1000 words, and apparently 10,000 armchair quarterback assumptions!! (and you know what they say about assumptions)

This is a storage facility, so some of these owners are not even in town to try and hook up their RVs to move them.

This facility was near the start of the fire, and fires here move VERY quickly driven by 35mph winds with single digit humidity. The first indication these owners probably had was watching their rigs burn down on the morning news, if they were up that early. Fire started before 7am.

Not all the RVs at this facility burned, about half of them were saved, due to a bit of luck and the firefighters efforts.

Why were they not saving homes? Because this facility was one of the first things to go, and at that time the fire was not completely out of control and threatening communities.

It is a sad sight to see anyone lose something they have worked for. These people and everyone impacted by the fire will be in my prayers.

Remember, when we are running from danger, the military, firemen, law enforcement etc. are running into that same danger we left!

I thank them! :B

Sorry,

But I spent to much time working for a city, and in risk assesment, though not working for the Fire Department. We did have to review each "Accident" and see if there was a way to prevent it from happening twice to a second person.

If there is a accident, and we did not learn from it, and someone else repeated the same accident, what good was all our training?

So do we rush into the fire, and not consider the risks? They still need to stay away from the propane tanks when the vehicle is on fire.

A retired sherriff officer that I know, watched her camper burn to the ground, while she and the firemen watched, the bullets in her RV where burning and rounds going off. The camper is replaceable, but not the Fireman. Her camper is a total loss, so are the vehicles in this picture. Why risk being so close to a propane tank, that is very hot.

Yes I do hope that they could have saved the home near this camper, but out of the shot. Yet still the risk manager would probably recommend something else than being so close to a propane tank that is engulfed in flames.

So yes I do stand by the comments that the fireman should not be in that location, that close to the propane tanks.

Yes I have had the pleasure to meet some very brave firemen, even one that walked up to a burning airplane, and got out the passengers. Of course he had on better gear than this guy has, and got away safely. Airport fire stations have better fire jackets, because they are expected to rush into a plane with burning diesel fuel, and take on that risk with better equipment.

Fred.