"Send-um message: Big Man-Bird, bringum fire water
.......and water for fire. Over"
Posted on 07/11/2002 1:21:30 PM PDT by DainBramage
PHOENIX (AP) - A woman reviled for setting one of Arizona's devastating wildfires said Thursday that she had been lost in the wilderness for two nights and was desperate to get the attention of a passing TV helicopter. "You can't blame me for saving my life," she said. In her first extensive interview since she was rescued by the helicopter June 20, Valinda Elliott told The Associated Press that she couldn't believe it when the signal fire she started with her lighter became part of the inferno that destroyed at least 467 homes and scorched nearly 469,000 acres before being contained.
"If there was some other way I could have gotten that helicopter's attention, I would have used it," she said.
The blaze she started, named the Chediski fire, merged with another to the east called the Rodeo fire, creating the biggest wildfire in Arizona history. The combined blazes burned through several communities last month and forced the evacuation of about 30,000 people.
Authorities said the Rodeo fire was started by Leonard Gregg, a part-time firefighter from the Fort Apache Indian Reservation looking for work. He pleaded innocent to federal charges last week.
Elliott said she has been questioned by the FBI and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. She has not been charged with a crime.
The FBI, BIA and the U.S. attorney's office would not discuss the investigation.
Some of those driven from their homes were furious at her when it was learned how the fire began.
Elliott said she became stranded in the wilderness after she and her employer ran out of gas June 18 while driving through the remote reservation. The two slept that night in her employer's truck, with no signs of anyone around to help and no cell phone signal to call 911.
The next morning, she said, she became separated from her boss while trying to find a place where her cell phone would work, she said. She said she lost her way back to the truck and spent the second night alone.
Elliott said she drank from muddy pools, had no food and began to worry she would never be found.
She used a lighter to set fire to a small bush the next morning after she heard the helicopter, which rescued her, Elliott said.
Her employer was rescued separately, she said.
AP-ES-07-11-02 1539EDT
WAAAAH! I'm the victim!
Now Callahan...
Hmmm...I haven't taken a woman out and "run out of gas" since High School.
I would say that she got their attention.
stranded while passing through the rez. Now he employed her.
"Send-um message: Big Man-Bird, bringum fire water
.......and water for fire. Over"
#2 Wandering off from her truck & boss (& or lover)
#3 Not being able to find her way back
I'd say 3 strikes and you're out. She should have made the sacrifice for the rest of human-kind at that point.
P.S. I take it since she had a lighter, she's a smoker
Honeymoons over.
Your points are all valid except your PS. She is a dimwit who should probably be fined and shunned by rational human beings. Whether or not she is a smoker is irrelevant.
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