Posted on 08/27/2007 6:26:09 AM PDT by ShadowDancer
Firefighters Encounter Bears In UP Blaze Fighting
POSTED: 8:36 am EDT August 27, 2007
NEWBERRY, Mich. -- Firefighters battling an Upper Peninsula fire that has been burning for more than three weeks have been encountering black bears as they work to contain the stubborn blaze.
Fire officer Keith Murphy was one of them. The Michigan Department of National Resources said he was reading a map Saturday afternoon when he heard a crack, looked up and saw a 200-pound bear about 10 feet away.
"He and the bear stared each other down for a moment, then Keith began waving his arms and yelling," the DNR said in a statement. "The bear took a couple of steps back, stopped and stared Keith down again.
"Keith slowly walked backward, got on his ATV and left."
Another fire officer had an encounter with a 150-pound bear, the DNR said.
Crews continued to work through the weekend fighting the fire, which covers more than 18,000 acres, or about 28 square miles, and is about 80 percent contained.
The fire is in the Lake Superior State Forest, about 55 miles west of Sault Ste. Marie and about 300 miles north of Detroit. It is believed to have been ignited by an Aug. 2 lightning strike.
LOL, it was the first thing that popped into my head when I read the story.
Thats kinda like saying drivers on detroit expressways are encountering heavy traffic.......
Detroit expressways = heavy traffic
Upper Peninsula = lots of woods and bears
Lake Superior = lots of water
Back in the 80’s while working as a firefighter for the US Forest Service, I encountered bears several times.
But now it’s probably due to global warming, and is all Bushes Fault!!!
One summer we were in a park that had lakes connected by shot trails. We were on one of the back lakes early in the morning. One of the adult leaders got out of his sleeping bag and went behind a large bush. There was a loud shout, everybody sat straight up, a black bear came out from behind the bush and ran through camp, and then Mr D came running out pointing behind him shouting “There’s a bear in there.”
Everybody in camp was rolling on the ground we were laughing so hard.
I wonder how many people remember the days when you would camp out at a state park. About sundown cars would drive out to the dump and park in a semicircle and everybody would sit quiet. Bears would slowly wander into the area and when a right good number were feeding everybody would turn on their headlights and watch the bears feed.
Those were the days.
Drove through there with the wife last week while on vacation. We were completely unaware that there was a fire situation until we were driving through the forest. Did not see any bears except for a couple who were going through picnic baskets at a nearby campground. I believe I heard one bear wearing a porkpie hat call it a pic-a-nic basket. The other bear who wore bowtie didn’t say anything.
I saw an article about Oswalds ranch. It survived well and was not affected.
I was camping in the UP about ten miles from the fire when it started. Smelled some smoke but that was it. From the article, Oswald’s Bear Ranch sounds pretty cool. I wish I would have gone to see it.
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