Mike Farnsworth is BC's public safety minister, and a fugging liar. This prick talks down to the locals for not evacuating and putting out the fire that nobody else can. This pos was threatening $10,000 fines to those who stayed to defend their homes and their neighbors homes. This idiot completely misunderstands the nature of "community" and what it means to be part of a rural Community.
He is denying that the locals had the fire contained, there is too many witnesses to say otherwise. This isn't the first time the authorities have told locals and loggers that they are to stand down because they aren't qualified to engage in fire fighting. I can't wait until he shows up for a Community pep talk in the aftermath of the fire.
It used to be the norm, then one year we were taking our annual S100 fire fighting course and the instructor told us we were only to be on a fire until the forestry arrives and takes over......you could hear a pin drop. A guy says what is this shyte?...the instructor went all rambo and said just because you are loggers doesn't mean you know anything about fire fighting.
The logging Community was pretty confused about what this meant, considering many of them had 40+ years experience.
A fire I was operating a skidder on.......the fire flared up on a steep slope, its a job for water cans (pizz cans) I grab mine which was full, the pro fireman grabs his, we head up the hill, him first. I reach him laying on a big rock and he can't go any further, I says...I will take your can with me and I will see you up there.....I pick up his can and it only had about 1/4 of it full of water, clown.....point being...we were in superlative conditioning, they were not, it can't be compared in any way.
They bring in People from other Provinces and Countries to fight fires in our backyard WTF??? They don't know the terrain, backroads, nor where the structures are located, and in many cases can't even speak english. There are hundreds of experienced locals that they will not allow on the fire, many of us have tanks with pumps mounted on our trucks...not allowed.
Its all about control, and its about something else.
