Grizzly Gulch Fire surges to 4500 acres (Black Hills South Dakota)

Rapid City Journal ^ | 6-30-02 | Journal Staff and AP

[petuniasevan]

It's growing, and yesterday's 100-plus temps didn't help. Today it's not as hot. Hopefully that will help with the firefighting efforts.

Read the article carefully, reading "between the lines". You'll see that a lot more is being said here than just "fire news".

[Fzob]

I hope Galt's Gulch isn't next.

[petuniasevan]

FIRE PING!!!

[petuniasevan]

concern the fire could reach the Beaver Park Roadless Area and its thousands of trees killed by pine beetles

If this burns, watch the media do backflips to avoid mentioning the obvious:
No roads plus no clearing diseased trees equals disaster!

[petuniasevan]

On a lighter note, look at this captioning error I found in the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader online:

Saturday, June 29, 2002

Kevin Woster - Argus Leader An airplane fighting the fire in the Black Elk WIlderness on Friday scouts the fire area south of Mount Rushmore National Memorial in preparation for a drop of fire retardants by a larger cargo plane.

Black Hills blaze small but dangerous
CUSTER - As worried residents watched from road bridges and rock outcroppings a few miles away, firefighters Friday battled rough terrain, 90-degree heat and a highly combustible pine forest to fight a fire in the Black Hills Wilderness Area.

[petuniasevan]

[rellimpank]

--when I moved to the Black Hills in '83 two thousand people were supported by logging--it's now a fraction of that, of course as a letter from the Sierra Club or the other "conservation" (treehugger) -groups takes a tract out of consideration for three years-indefinitely, for practical purposes.

Along the same lines, for nearly two weeks now Show Low, Arizona has been in danger--in that hime two dozers could have had a firebreak a few hundred feet wide around the entire town--wonder why not?

[rellimpank]

--the Argus Leader is usually referred to as the Argus Liar by those of us "west river"--

[petuniasevan]

I grew up in Southern California. There were numerous 100-yard firebreaks scraped into the hillsides below the San Gabriel Mountains which did help prevent fire spreading. All bets were off during a Santa Ana wind, though. Embers flew for miles.

I haven't been back for some years; I'll bet the firebreaks are now overgrown.

[petuniasevan]

SD FIRE PING!

[4TheFlag]

Thanks for the ping ps, I saw the smoke over the Hills as I headed for home last night. I afraid this is only the beginning, unless we get some rain...

Thank God they have been able to spare Deadwood so far, what a historic loss that would be.

[4TheFlag]

A SD West River PING and BUMP

[SoDak]

We call it that on this side of the state too. We can thank Tim Johnson and Tom Daschle for these fires, at least in part. John Thune tried to introduce legislation to log out firebreaks and clean the tinder up, but Dasshole and Johnson stuck with the envirowackos, made sure the measure was killed, and we very nearly lost a state treasure because of it. It's only going to get worse.

[SoDak]

Thanks for the ping.

[historian1944]

If we must be stupid enough to make sure the fires are a really big problem, we should have a really big plane to deal with the fires. The Ilyushin Solution. Converted IL-76 Waterbomber.

http://www.waterbomber.com

[BOBTHENAILER]

. John Thune tried to introduce legislation to log out firebreaks and clean the tinder up, but Dasshole and Johnson stuck with the envirowackos

Very well said. That needs to get repeated across the fine state of SD repeatedly, loudly and forcefully, through November for a thune victory. Then on through 2004, for a Daschle defeat.

Spread this word farther and faster than any fire could ever match, but with all the flaming intensity these fires build on.

[floriduh voter]

So, what do they call it FORESTRY MANAGEMENT? THUNE WAS FOR BETTER FORESTRY MANAGEMENT WHEN HE WAS A CONGRESSMAN? But, the environmentalists and Daschle "didn't get it". FV

[wita]

Can see the smoke about 40 miles in a straight line from where my house is. Last night it blew north east, this morning it blew south, this afternoon it is straight up. Winds are changing often. Slurry bombers real active, I have suggested in the past that the fires would go out a lot quicker if we loaded the bombers with the latest high tech slurry consisting of 100% living moronvironmentalist, followed up with an unchallenged forest management plan, and in five years, the thinned and managed forests though not fire proof, would be far more likely to resist wild fire and more easily controlled if one was to start.

I just haven't decided who is going to name the enviros, and who will make up the Order of Slurry deployment. Perhaps a committee from each state with the western states having priority. By the second or third slurry deployment, there will be a nationwide epiphany and day of repentence announced by all enviros unwilling to place their precious lives on the line for a battle they know in their hearts is a lie and a sham. Freedom of speech does not include destruction of the Constitution, our way of life, or lies and deception, and faulty opinions regarding a science that foresters have spent centuries developing and learning.

[EternalVigilance]

A couple of hours ago, a special report came on the TV here...Governor Janklow was asking all of the residents of Lead to evacuate. The wind had changed, and the fire had jumped the highway.

The Governor, who is also our Republican nominee for Congress this fall, has been very involved in the effort to protect lives and property. My hat is off to him for his hard work.

John Thune showed up during the interview, and talked for a bit as well.

I guess Tim Johnson must have been elsewhere...perhaps he's off at a meeting of the Sierra Club or something... ;-)

EV

[Brad’s Gramma]

Bumping for John Thune! You know, everyone can go to his site and DONATE so he'll win!!!!