Orange County Fire Chief: "Had We Had More Air Resources, We Would Have Been Able To Control This Fire,"

"If the weather cooperates, maybe we can turn the tide," he said.

Crews were anticipating an injection of additional firefighters and equipment from other states, mostly throughout the West. Frustration over the firefighting effort began to emerge Tuesday when a fire official said not enough had been done to protect homes.

Orange County Fire Chief Chip Prather told reporters that firefighters' lives were threatened because too few crews were on the ground. He said a quick deployment of aircraft could have corralled a massive blaze near Irvine.

"It is an absolute fact: Had we had more air resources, we would have been able to control this fire," he said.

The fires have burned 410,000 acres, or about 640 square miles, causing at least $100 million in damage. Twenty-one firefighters and at least 24 others have been injured. One person was killed by the flames, and the San Diego medical examiner's officer listed four other deaths as connected to the blazes.

Read entire story here.

Comments

[FPOAP]

Whatever. Fire is a fact of life in SoCal. Lived here all my life. The air-tankers couldn't fly until yesterday because of the winds. At least in San Diego County. The Fire people are doing a great job and everything that can fly is in the air again today.

[LaFeminazi]

Our lovely trolls.

So full of compassion, sympathy and wind.

Don't you just want to hold them until they burp?

[ute]

(vision of Linda Blair projectile burping in The Exorcist)

uh, no.

[sarcasticennui]

Upside down.

In a rain barrel.

[BreadandRoses]

Only if it's full.

[JaneC]

Shame on you femi! The "values voters" certainly don't burp! You are sure to offend them with such a rude comment. They really are quite sensitive you know.

[LaFeminazi]

See below

;)

So sensitive.

[JamesR.]

Ick. Stop it.

[levibatgirl]

No. It always comes out the other end.

[Old Writer]

Hasn't it occured to anyone that we're fighting fires with eighteenth century fire hoses?
We need a national Air Fire-Fighter Force? Let's get thirty or forty military planes that are now sitting in moth balls somewhere in mid U.S., four hours from any corner of the country, and train pilots to drop water instead of bombs.
Joseph C. Cavella
HowToWriteComedy.com

[kingofscotts]

So you think we need a "national air fire fighter force"?

Well you should be elated to know that we do in fact have this.

Aren't you excited. How did this slip by you? You should do some research into it. It's an amazing group. True heroes. Extremely organized. Ready to pounce anywhere in the country when needed.

[StillAmused]

Why should anyone believe the Orange County Fire Chief when we have all these right-wing toadies and career trolls, loaded down with faith-based "knowledge" and ideological frustration, here to give us the real scoop?

Yeah... we got our own reliable sources.

Anyone heard from Rush...?

[forpeace]

*

"StillAmused
Yeah... we got our own reliable sources.
Anyone heard from Rush...?"
==========­==========­===

..........­he is on CRACK.....­......agai­n.....!

*

[rwe]

But you hate the military ..Aren't yu afraid they will come in and loot and ravage and murder? But Harry is saying it is caused by global warming. Sets have some non-binding resolutions. And you would rather blame President Bush . And how soon until Osama comes out with a video taking credit

[JamesR.]

Zzzzzzzzzz­zzzzzz(dit­tohead)zzz­zzzzzzzz

[StillAmused]

You're a very disturbed human being. You must live in a harrowing, delusional world if you suffer this Tourette's tic that spontaneously produces gibberish like "you hate the military" on a thread about a shortage of air resources.­..

... claimed by the Fire Chief, not one of your inflatable plastic wingnut heroes who's in regular communication with the Jeebus.

[levibatgirl]

As your peers would say, you are a "moran."

[A Meat Beetle]

rwe:

You know who else is saying these fires are the result of globabl warming? Virtually every firefighter in the western US. They are seeing bigger fires, in higher atltitudes than anyone has ever seen. This is due to the fact that snows are melting ealrier, trees are drying out, and it creates a veritable tinderbox. These are the front-line warriors in this battle (and my nephew is among them). These are men and women who actally work for a living (unlike our "president" who has never had a job in his life). They may not be MIT graduates, but they know their jobs and they know when things aren't right.

There has been nothing like this in recorded history. If you want to follow Bush down the primrose path to the conservo-nut la-la land utopia of denial, have at it You won't be missed by anyone of any importance.

So go away, leave us alone. You have nothing of any value to say. The Freepers site is the place for people like you, you stupid schmuck.

[kingofscotts]

Didn't you hear, six minutes after saying that he claimed to the same group of people that the words that they just heard come out of his mouth didn't really come out of his mouth.

He is cracking up.

[PollM]

.
Here we go again, lots of BS by BUSH and FEMA. The truth is, FEMA response is too late and in-adequate.

Air Resource by the Federal Government insufficient Orange County Fire Chief Says, Is the Federal Government faltering again? ----> http://www.youpolls.com/details.asp?pid=784.

[forpeace]

*

Just how F****ed Up foX and most US media are.

Fox News: Al Qaeda is causing the CA wildires.
This morning on Fox News, hosts of the show Fox and Friends blamed the wildfires in California on a new culprit: al Qaeda

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/24/fox-news-al-qaeda-is-causing-the-ca-wildires/

*

[JaneC]

Seriously, would you expect anything else?

[LaFeminazi]

Al Qaeda and or liberals.

Par for the course.

Fox Flatulence Channel.

[forpeace]

*

"JaneC
Seriously, would you expect anything else?"
==================

No, I wouldn't, but this is beyond imagination.

..........­.it wonders me how Badly Mentally Damaged are the foX Listeners!!!

*

[IntelligentDesign]

It's the base.

[Turnip]

If President Cheney could only find a corrupt, crony-owned, no-bid fire department he WOULD send them off the fight forest fires in the Iraqi desert.

[forpeace]

*

"Turnip
If President Cheney could only find a corrupt, crony-owned, no-bid fire department he WOULD send them off the fight forest fires in the Iraqi desert."
==========­==========­=

Dick is busy shopping around for a new Battery!
..........­he may burn in Hell!

*

[Ping]

The winds are abating, this is where the equipment shortage and the manpower shortage will become evident. Once again like in Katrina, just like in Iraq for the second time these RePUBlicans are prematurely claiming victory. Like the stupid morons they just repeat the crap being run on FAUX.

No one deserves to lose their house. Just like the victims of Katrina do not deserve to have their decision to not evacuate second guessed, the people who bought houses or built houses in a fire zone don't deserve to have their housing decisions second guessed either. Victims of natural disasters who lose their houses, lose possessions and memories that are irreplaceable. Money cannot replace the things they lose. It's a human tragedy. Try to be compassionate.

[Doug]

Unlike Katrina, these people will rebuild their own homes and business.

[GarsLuber]

not all of those people were rich. In fact, most of them are trapped in upside down loans.

Chicken Hawks talk a lot, but research little.

status quo. Carry feathery friend.

[sarcasticennui]

Hate to tell you, uggie, but most of the displaced from Katrina CAN'T rebuild.

They lived in rental housing.

The owners are not rebuilding, choosing to hold out for higher prices on the land.

[forpeace]

*

"Doug
Unlike Katrina, these people will rebuild their own homes and business."
==========­==========­===

That is true, no matter what people of California will rebuild again, as they have done that so many times in the past.

*

[olivia]

Yeah, they are mostly wealthy by American standards if they own a home in southern California.

What's your point? That rich people are better prepared to deal with disaster than poor people? Well, duh!!!!

[JaneC]

Could you possibly be getting any more pleasure from the suffering of the Katrina vitims? You've been riding their backs here for two days now.

What's up with you repiglicans and riding the backs of the dead and wounded to score points? Holy crap is there no end to your subhuman behavior?

[jfredmuggs]

"Compassionate?" From these clods? I guess not. They have no conception of compassion, and my guess is that they don't even know the meaning of the word.

[Firaxis]

Liberal compassion - taking property from those who have toiled long hours to obtain their property and redistributing to those who have made poor choices in life.

It's called legal plunder, also known as socialism.

[olivia]

"Just like the victims of Katrina do not deserve to have their decision to not evacuate second guessed...­"

How easy it is to forget the victims of Katrina did not have a choice. Those who stayed did not have any place to go, or any way to get there. They were poor.

It's also easy to forget that most of the deaths were not from the storm itself, but from the levees breaking after the storm was over. BushCo doesn't want to be reminded that failing to repair the levees is what killed the Katrina victims.

[thegreatgiginthesky]

The concept of someone having no means to evacuate does not register with these morons. They will keep harping this stupidity till they are in the same situation. That is when the light bulb flickers on and they figure out, maybe this evacuating thing ain't such a cake walk after all.

[GarsLuber]

On the bright side, if there's a brush fire in Iraq, we're ready!

[thegreatgiginthesky]

Scorched earth does not burn very well.

[olivia]

There is - and we're not.

[MrHumidty]

As a Katrina survivor, my thoughts are with all those suffering in California. I would like to know something I could do for them.

[dcotter]

Get off your butt and call the fire departments and see what they need.

[JaneC]

Why so bitter danny? Oh, that's right. You guys are fading fast, I almost forgot. hehe

[GarsLuber]

dcotter (See profile | I'm a fan of dcotter)
Get off your butt and call the fire departments and see what they need.

Just like you volunteered for your Iraq Oil War!! LOL!

Cowards can be very amusing.

[JaneC]

Glad you made it through that horrific event sir. I wish you the best.

[midnight04]

The air resources are in Iraq

[Firaxis]

Putting out forest fires in Iraq no doubt?

[liberalveteran]

The fires in California are just another tragic global warming story. Sure California always had forest fires, but with the greater heat and drought caused by global warming, the fires have reached unprecedented levels.

The trolls are really upset about this, because their idiot leader Bush told them global warming was a liberal myth. And the trolls, being what they are, always accept the opinions of fools.

[Doug]

The funny thing is that democrats have been blocking nuclear energy for decades.

[itsbushstupid]

doug....wh­at is the price of tea in china?

[GarsLuber]

a chicken hawk like you won't want to pay for the true costs of nuclear power... including having the waste guarded for 10,000 years.

not a very well researched person

[neoconpig]

could the fires have anything to do with the greenies that wouldn't allow all the undergrowth and dead trees to be takin out. thats all pretty good fuel for a fire. no it couldn't be that.

[neoconpig]

most of the residents in CA wanted to cut fire breaks and the conservationist wouldn't allow them to do it. threatened to fine them thousands of dollars. now they don't have homes.

[peterg76]

I like that bit about the "anti-Katr­ina." Little George is probably thinking that flooding puts out fires, and he can get away with doing nothing at all.

[JaneC]

Little George think? He pays people to do that for him. He lacks the capability of doing so himself.

[nonotchka]

When are guys like this going to be given a REAL ARSENAL to use against fires of this magnitude other than a pick and an shovel, a helicopter and a plane or jet dropping stuff that is vaporized before it hits the ground?

The technology is already here to create BOMBS THAT WOULD SNUFF OUT THE OXYGEN OVER A BROAD AREA.
sound familiar? it is the principle behind putting out an oil well fire, (you remember john wayne dont you???).

n.

[jeter2]

A USA Today article from '03 that's interesting:

FBI: al-Qaeda detainee spoke of fire plot
PHOENIX (AP) — The FBI alerted law enforcement agencies last month that an al-Qaeda terrorist now in detention had talked of masterminding a plot to set a series of devastating forest fires around the western United States.
Rose Davis, a spokeswoman for the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, told The Associated Press that officials there took note of the warning but didn't see a need to act further on it.

The contents of the June 25 memo from the FBI's Denver office were reported Friday by The Arizona Republic. Davis declined to share a copy of the memo and an FBI spokeswoman in Denver didn't immediately return a telephone call.

The Republic reported that the detainee, who was not identified, said the plan involved three or four people setting wildfires using timed devices in Colorado, Montana, Utah and Wyoming that would detonate in forests and grasslands after the operatives had left the country.

The memo noted that investigators couldn't determine whether the detainee was telling the truth.

The newspaper said many forest law enforcement officers it contacted had no idea the warning had been issued.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-07-11-alqaeda-fire_x.htm

[adamsmith]

According to the left, there are no terrorists, and it's stupid to fight them there so we don't need to fight them here. Kind of curious as to the size of this thing, from L.A. to San Diego. Awful lot of mileage to just start on it's own...Then again, there aren't any terrorists, except the ones Bush lies about.....­.......

[innerpeace]

adamsmith-You make up funny stuff.Is that your goal?

[JaneC]

Nope. According to the left there are many more terrorist than there were pre 9/11. We credit the Chimp 100%. We do indeed give credit where credit is due.

[Ping]

There were no terrorists in Iraq until the US invaded. It is the RePUBlicans who are the creating these terrorists though their actions. If a terrorist did start these fires, and there is a good chance that it is domestic right wing Republican terrorist arsonist.

[who38]

Arson season, as we know it in some parts of California, existed long before 9/11. Check the facts to find out who is often responsible for setting these fires.

[GarsLuber]

Adam, how does it feel to live your life in a perpetual state of fear.

I'm curious about that. I tried get hysterical over 19 arabs with box cutters, but I just couldn't. I guess I don't have what it takes to be a coward like you.

[ute]

I KNEW IT!

al-Qaeda set the fires. Carpet-bombing of Teheran to begin in 3... 2... 1...

oy.

[JaneC]

And it can all be traced back to........­.....THE BLOWJOB!

[WheelofVoter]

I think they should put Bush's face on the dollar bill since it is worth less than a peso now. Maybe Sri Lanka will offer us aid again like they did after Katrina. Where were all the US Forestry planes? My wife just flew from one coast to another in 6 hours. These fires have been burning since Sunday. DOES ANYONE IN WHITEHOUSE WATCH NEWS? Chemicals do no turn to useless mist as the spin machine is spinning. More planes would have helped. Control burns are moronic in 100 mph winds. They should build brick houses with tin roofs out there. This will continue to be partisan until Nat Guard is brought home.

[adamsmith]

WheelofVoter-nice spin......­..