https://canbyfirst.com/all-volunteer-redneck-crew-credited-with-saving-molalla-neighborhood/
And here it is we are not allowed to do this because you need to be under the official chain of command.
Fire department Crews get really upset at volunteers joining in.
And what was that? The common people mobilizing because there was no attempt at saving canby molalla estacada or Sandy.
I seen houses that were completely burned to the ground.
And I also seen all these rural folk come together and battle the fires with whatever they could bring together to bear on this fire.
This is the real heroes and the real amazing story of these fires.
The common men women and children came out took action and got things done.
From clearing the road to allow access. To putting out spot fires with what little equipment they had.
What you are seeing is acknowledgment of the true heroes of this catastrophe.
The common people of Oregon came together like an amazing dream.
So many people working together.
So many people fighting the same battle against anatomy with no compassion or remorse.
I am honored to spend even the little amount of time that I did with these individuals.
These are people scared of seeing another house burn another family lose everything they have.
And then right in front of us what happens but we see somebody committing arson.
Every single one of these country people have guns that is not in question and it is not in question that the Oregon law allows you to carry your weapons.
I didn't see anyone shooting at anybody. I didn't see a single round shot.
I did see communication proper weapon handling skills and people protecting the group that they were with.
We had gotten word that a fire tanker was coming up. So we had opened up access and moved all the vehicles so that there is a clean open Lane for the fire truck.
Just something so simple as going through and cutting access through the fallen trees partially blocking the road ended up being absolutely priceless.
The fire department didn't have to cut their way into that area as we did it.
The lead elements cut in a one lane access and the rest of the group following with me included worked on fully opening up both lanes.
Now usually when I'm doing this with a couple of people you have to do a lot of cuts but when you have 10 people and I had the only sharp saw I only had to make a couple of cuts and we were on to the next hazard in the roadway.
Yep that's right I would just do one cut and 10 people would drag the rest of the trunk out of the road.
This would be one of the most primitive forms of healing.
For you to work with somebody not for pay but for an ideal.
Our ideal was hopefully we can save just one life hopefully we can help the firefighters get to where they need to.
Hopefully we can put out one little spot fire and prevent another fire from growing back up and challenging the human beings living in these forests.
Over and over these actions prove to me that there are so many good people out there.
I was proud to stand and help these individuals.
Not a single one of these individuals will be paid and most of these individuals will refuse any kind of acknowledgment.
There will be some people who will claim that they did way more and try to grandstand.
But the real heroes will keep quiet and smile.
One day when we are old and gray these memories will make us smile fondly and remember the times where we could do such great works together.
Unfortunately I can't really source anymore material than just this however I do regret not being able to take more pictures. Let alone being able to take video of some of the extraordinary events that I had witnessed.
In one event there was a burning tree that was snapped in half and still standing with the crown caught in another tree. The joint of the brake you could actually see had burned all the way through. One of the scariest situations I have ever seen.
These individuals immediately attacked the tree but their saws had been dulled with so much use.
One individual walked up and asked me if my saw was sharp. it was pretty much brand new so of course it was and without hesitation I handed him my brand new Stihl chainsaw.
He immediately jumped in and started signing away at the base of the tree that had caught up the burning tree.
And now we have an extremely political situation when the sporting tree was cut out the crown jumped off of where it was broken in a massive shower of Sparks.
The guy actually kept a hold of my saw and when the trees fell everybody abandoned the area and luckily nobody was injured by one and a half falling trees weighing in at massive amounts of weight.
However an army of rednecks and Good old country folk had water pumps as well as IBC containers full of water. Immediately showering the area and helping to put out any chance of those Sparks reigniting the forest fire.
Then we still had a 40 ft long burning stump. So I started to go to work on that. The tree bound up my saw and I was forced to abandon it.
my saw definitely took a beating and we'll see if I can get another chain for it after all this is over.
Hopefully later today we can go help out. they definitely are needing more help I sent some friends out because I couldn't get a ride this morning.
I am absolutely saying prayers for all of these amazing men and women.
There was no fighting and disrespect that I saw because we were too busy fighting an enemy that was more dangerous. And one that didn't have a conscience Mercy or get tired.
May these individuals be blessed and acknowledged.
Even if they want to stay silent their actions will echo through the future.
The year that there was so much division and hate these wildfires forced oregonians to come together.
It didn't take much and everybody was suddenly working together. Everybody was doing amazing things.
And now I heard that the national guard was mobilized last night to help support these wildfires and the wildfire fighters.
This is an absolute shame that no action was taken when it could have been vitally important.
We have entire towns that are completely burned to the ground.
And this Governor has mismanaged not only the protest but also these fires in such a shameful manner.
Shame on Governor Kate Brown and her lack of action.
The firefighters - whether wearing uniform or not - are absolute heroes. We had a few die here last season - just tragic. But it is so beautiful when people come together in a crisis, for us to see that humanity is capable of amazing things when they have a shared purpose.
The same thing happened here - Scott Morrison, our PM, refused to pay firefighters though they'd been volunteering ROUND THE CLOCK for weeks, sometimes months, on end and were exhausted. His comment? 'They do it because they want to'. Oh yes, of course - but he missed the point that these men and woman were risking their lives and making huge sacrifices.
I am hoping we escape the bad fire season this year and it makes me upset just to think about it happening on top of COVID, so my heart really goes out to you guys.
Thank you very much it was a long day and I just barely got back.
2:00 p.m. to 11:13 p.m.
Riverflows... you know that Australia has sold the vast majority of it's underground water, freshwater rivers and dams, the Great Artesian Basin to foreign investors??
Look up Angus Young... he owns shares in "Australian Water" of all fucking things!!!!!!!!!!!
Bless <3
Well done , sir!
Thank you very much it was amazing to watch the entire Community come out with everything that they had from heavy equipment to simple shovels.
This is why I don't think Americans will lose the war. Because people like ya'll are Americans.
Thanks!
California may be however here in Oregon the second that we had in arson attack in the middle of our firefighting group action next thing you know we had ordinary citizens standing guard.
Now the citizens could have opened fire on the vehicle containing the arsonist. However they knew that it was going to be an issue so they held fire and instead started a vehicle pursuit.
I left shortly afterwards because I was tired and we had run out of need for the chainsaw so I headed home.
Yes I did and we've also had that claim going around about last year's fires in northern California in southern Oregon.
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Your photos I saw a few days ago left me speechless @ your gusto. GOOD ON YOU, MAN!!
This really struck me and I had to think it over a little bit, especially in today's highly mind-controlled, over-politicized, consciousness-repressing world of 24/7 bullshit.
It's not about collective strength in diversity, it's about collective strength through adversity.
This is a real close issue to me that has been part of my entire life here in Australia. And part of my job too (Insurance Claims Management).
2020 started with around $5billion AUD worth of fire claims (link here sorta covers this). I've worked through many such events but what really floored me is learning almost first hand (you in the field with your saw in the smoke is first hand, us loss handlers, insurers and claims adjusters are the 2nd) how fucked up the situation really is. Fire risk management is a thing, arson is a thing, geo-engineering to create the perfect conditions for wildfires IS MOST DEFINITELY A THING and it's a huge part of a global governance agenda.
Despite having some of the best (if not the best) fire departments and fire risk management policies in the world, Australia turned into a global pariah at the start of 2020 for the utter bullshit which is climate change being a looming threat to us all... I worked through the Victorian Black Saturday bushfires of 2009 which were utterly devastating in speed, mortality and intensity and saw NOTHING of the same in the fires of late 2019 and start of 2020. Did some investigating and learnt that in the span of 10 years, Australia had commodified the most precious resource of all, their water....
I'm not going to go into it now as fuck man... I know i know too keenly of what you are going through right now... the reasons there's fires of such size in places totally abnormal for them to occur in is because to some extent it was planned that way... Stay safe and let me know if I can help with some fire risk management policies, procedures, information, documentaiton...
I'm curious though... does Oregon forbid firebreaks through forested areas or national parks? Does the department of parks and wildlife undertake back burning there? Has there been extensive boring or mining of underground water? Are there aquifers or artesian groundwater bodies in Oregon?
xoxo
Honestly enough the bill for this is going to be absolutely astronomical.
From just the simple gas bill for all of the evacuations of livestock to transportation of enough feed for all this displaced livestock.
Biggest hit are the families who lost everything. however the government is going to give you $30,000 if you were under insured which should cover everything that you owned going up in flames.
I'm not familiar with the US equivalent of the Insurance Contracts Act but if there's any questions or anything I could offer advice upon, I'm happy to offer the same.
A lot of Householder insurance policies in Australia contain a "safety net" additional benefit built into the coverage. It's for such catastrophic total losses as Fires and provides around 20-25% additional sum insured on top of the nominated building Sum Insured in case of a total loss.
The thing with the government "bailing out" underinsured policyholders is that it will start the push towards a public / private hybrid insurance coverage. This is not good as the responsibility for the losses from the fire are no longer solely indemnified under your contract of insurance. Of course it's a lifesaver for those poor families who lost their entire homes and will struggle to get back on their feet but it's not healthy for the future. I can see an acceleration of "uninsurability" due to historical fire risk data and lack of underwriting appetite from Insurers being used to make these families abandon their towns and lifestyles :-(
It could be a case of outright being too expensive to insure or being refused a quote for insurance... I hope that these townsfolk figure out a way to remain in their towns and not migrate into the closest Strong Cities Network city or "Smart City."
Find out who is behind this and get the Insurers who do pay out on fire claims to pursue them for recoveries of the costs. The government should also be investigating the causes to rule out any criminal activity!
Absolutely there is going to be a massive amount of investigation as to the start of these fires and public outcry will demand those individuals have to be accountable.
No.
Not in my county.
No, but in dry areas surface waters are short, and overallocated to particular agricultural interests.
Yes, but there's far more diversity of geology from the coast, intermountain valleys, and Great Basin and range hydrological resources than I think Australia features. Here on the coast there are artesian groundwater bodies, but I dunno about East of the Coast Range.
There is until you get to the east side of the Cascades and they start really drying up at that point if we're talking about artesian water.
I saw a video tweeted out of what looked like an Antifa Rioter-4-hire on someone's property in Oregon looking like they were starting fires, also of Molotovs.
What started these fires?
Well with the windstorm a lot of power lines were knocked down so there is quite a bit of a chance that some of these fires were started that way.
However so many of these fires were not started by natural means.
Let alone the fires that were started on purpose to hurt others.
In Snohomish County in WA power poles were found to have been cut with chainsaws, and Captain Jeff Smith (IIRC) of Clackamas County Sheriff's Department testified to the Clackamas County Commission during a livestream (on 9/11 IIRC) that folks had reported arsonists looking to drop power poles near Estacada.
Dropped power lines aren't natural causes of fire, and can be arson, not just negligence of the Utility company.
Many of the fires were started with fireworks or Molotovs, exactly as BLM rioters were using immediately prior to the windstorm against police.
Wildfire arson is a crime against humanity.
Thanks for doing your part to keep people safe.
Wow I totally didn't hear about that bit of news if you could hook me up with a link I'd really appreciate it.
And arson is not a weapon that most people would think is deadly however I know better than that.
These fires have caused massive damage not only to life but also to property.
One of these fires that I worked on I drove past a small property and a little old guy standing in the ashes of everything he owned.
The government giving you $30,000 wasn't going to cover what you lost.
From Blazing Saddles:
And this is what it is like when you do any work that is supposed to be done by public works.
What i really hate is when you know more then they do. But they still consider themselves the experts, and will prove that they are the experts via govern-cement violence. Especially when they are provably wrong.
I am glad the red-neck fire brigade dids't work out.
Actually the government was told to stand down and it was up to the citizens and the rednecks to save the communities.
Countless communities like mollala, canby, Colton, were all saved by the citizens. So your comment isn't going to get a vote.
You got it all backwards. Shrug.
i was speaking about my own experience with public works.