Hi All

Some on this board seem to think that Wildland Fire prevention efforts are a matter to poke fun at. I want to remind all of us that it is not a joke and that to many lives have been lost in fighting such fires.

Shttps://www.azcentral.com/story/news/l ... 3796001/ix years later, Yarnell and Prescott remember 19 fallen Granite Mountain Hotshots

Robby Peartree

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Sir:

I was in the rare circumstances of being able to SEE the fire on Granite Mountain AS THE TRAGEDY UNFOLDED. From 25 miles away, through binoculars.

I spent the week afterwards in the midst of the town's mourning.

I have a business associate who's about to retire from a year-round job as a "hotshot" and firefighter to focus full-time on his family's business he started (had to lock in that pension, you know).

An Arizona firefighter was one of three that died in a tanker plane crash in Australia. We had a bunch more over there.

I was even briefly a volunteer firefighter--my hearing impairment put the kibosh on further work in that field.

But I still made the joke.

This comic from a week and a half ago perfectly covers my views on "political correctness":
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2020/02/09

Amen to that. There also seem to be a few individuals that refuse to accept that it is the responsibility of the railway preservation movement to prevent destruction of public lands and risk to lives and property, to the extent that in some cases it is inappropriate to operate steam locomotives.

Here in Arizona, the costs of maintaining and operating steam locomotives are significant enough as to realistically limit the use of steam locomotives. Water is very scarce throughout the state and justifiably very expensive. Wells here in the Tucson area do not need to be nearly as deep as wells in other locations, as the City of Tucson has
been using Colorado River water to recharge the aquifer here.

Also, as Sandy mentioned, the risk of wildfire here is extremely high due to the type of vegetation encountered, even in the Sonoran desert. We've had several extreme wildfires in the southern region of Arizona, none of which have resulted in loss of life (fortunately). One of the problem species is buffelgrass, which burns extremely hot. I was here when the fires on Mount Lemmon threatened to come down the mountainside into the Town of Oro Valley and City of Tucson. The residential airpark my parents live at was closed to aircraft operations and transformed into a helicopter tanker base.

For those who are interested in firefighting in general, a must see is the Hall of Flame Museum in Tempe, Arizona. It is privately owned, but is incorporated as a museum and has a friends group that works to operate the museum. It is the largest private collection of firefighting apparatus in the world and has a section of the museum dedicated to wildland firefighting, including an accurate representation of a fire spotter's tower cab. One neat note is that all of the motorized fire apparatus are maintained in running condition. Three units are maintained as parade vehicles. They also display a vast collection of other firefighting objects, including headgear and fire company plaques that were affixed to the structures of service subscribers.

Drought conditions are not limited to Arizona. Reading Company ran one of the 1963 Iron Horse Rambles with FP-7's because of an ongoing drought. The State of Pennsylvania had requested the substitution. 2100 did make an appearance live and in motion at Reading Outer Station.

Phil Mulligan

Everybody here was shocked and saddened when we learned about the crashed tanker. Moreso since it is such a great way for our two countries to co-operate and learn from each other.

For those who think the conversion to oil is a joke or something to make fun of look at the February 24, 2020 issue of the Denver Post. There is an article on the conversion of the 493 to oil by their environmental reporter. The 416 fire is mentioned in the article. The D&S is working hard to make Lemon aid out of the Lemon's of the situation.

The results of wildland fires no matter the cause are affecting the Tourist Railroad business. The hostile situation about the lack of prosecution of Valinda Jo Elliott over the part of Rodeo–Chediski Fire. The D&S is in a bad situation. for the Railroads sake I hope they get thru it. childish jokes will not help the situation.

Robby Peartree


https://www.denverpost.com/2020/02/24/d ... -coal-oil/

We had a similar situation in 1995. We had a steam charter on the Chattooga and Chickamauga Railway and were met at the state line by the fire chief and fire marshal for the Rossville, Georgia Fire Department. They wanted to know what our fire response plan was and wanted us to use a fire department provided pumper. We were well aware of the situation and politely declined the use of the pumper as we had a GP-7L following the steam train with a 10,000 gallon water tender, a couple of hundred feet of firehose and a pump and compressor set up for firefighting. We also pointed out that most of the railroad is inaccessible by road, so the pumper wasn't really something we could use. We also had spotters on the steam train and spotters on the fire train. That satisfied the authorities and we went on our way. For the record, we did have to stop and address a couple of hot spots that were radioed to us by the spotters on the steam train.

Wildfires and climate change are no joke. The more progressive steam locomotive operators recognize the threats that climate change poses and are quietly taking steps to ensure that they will be able to continue to operate in the future. When TVRM designed the new tank for the 630 years ago, it was designed so that an oil tank can be installed in the coal bunker in the future.

The facts are that the climate is changing and wildfires are a real danger that we cannot take lightly. We need to be prepared to adapt to the conditions that the future will present us.