All Hell breaks loose in Colorado--FIRE

[Samson]

Spending cuts are great as long as they don't negatively impact you.

Deep thoughts.

Let me add to them:

Bad things happen to Good People.

 

[CaféAuLait]

Do Colorado teabaggers want the Federal government to stay out and let them come up with a state-based solution?

Much of the wildfires are on federal property.

Add this to the equation:

Much of what’s burning is the Pike National Forest, which is federal property. Yet it took almost three days to get federal fire fighting aircraft off the ground to begin dumping meaningful loads of slurry to slow the fire’s growth. Because the Forest Service has a shortage of planes, Air Force C-130s finally joined the effort Monday afternoon to battle a fire that began Saturday morning

Washington-based Human Events magazine reported in September of 2011 that nearly half of the federal government’s air tankers sat idle at a California airport, as wildfires ripped through national forests throughout California, Texas, New Mexico, and other states.

It turns out the Obama administration ended a long-standing contract, leaving the Forest Service with only 11 tankers to battle 50 wildfires that were burning nationwide. A decade ago, the Forest Service had 40 firefighting tankers.

The Obama administration canceled the government’s contract with Aero Union — a company with 60 employees that had been under contract with the Forest Service for 50 years. Though it canceled that contract, the administration had no plan for an immediate replacement. Aero Union CEO Britt Gourley told Human Events the administration provided no details on why the contract was ended.

Read more: Obama shrunk aerial firefighting fleet (poll) | obama, edge, rages - TOWN HALL - Colorado Springs Gazette, CO


Either way, polotics out I can only hope that everyone is safe and the fires go out soon.

This is what happens when you rely on wingnut echo chambers to get your "news"

Most of the money to fight the fire from the ground and the air comes from federal funding. The Forest Service is worried because over the past two years Congress has slashed funding for wildfire suppression and prevention by $500 million, a 15 percent cut.


"We feel that the money we have available for fire suppression this year will provide for a moderate fire season," said Tidwell.
But Tidwell says this fire season won't stay moderate for long. Things are expected to heat up around the country.
An active fire season would mean dipping into other funds.


"But that doesn't factor into the decisions that we're making," he continued. "The decisions are based on what needs to occur, what's the right way to do this, what's the safe way to do this and that's what we determine that needs to be done to combat these fires."


Money is an afterthought when it comes to putting out fires. But Dan Ware from New Mexico's State Forestry says fire crews won't be wasting money.


"At any time when budgets get reduced, you learn how to stretch the dollar further," said Ware. He adds that they won't use an excessive amount of fire engines or pay office employees too much overtime.


"We have a great working relationship with United States Forest Services. We help them with their fires. They help us with our fires," said Ware.


The number of air tankers has also been cut by about two-thirds, but for the Whitewater fire helicopters are being used more often.


Last fire season in New Mexico cost $28 million. About $10 million of that was billed to the federal government, but the state is still waiting on some of that money back.


Federal firefighting money could go dry
​

Primary source, fucker, not some wingnut blog.

Added bonus: an additional bitch-slap to CrusaderFrank.

Um, please tell me, since when is the Colorado Springs Gazette a "wingnut echo chambers" or a rightwing blog?

 

[CaféAuLait]

Much of the wildfires are on federal property. ...

Are such file preventable?

Perhaps if you had kept my quote in context, you may understand why I replied the way I did, please feel free to scroll back.

As for your question, they may not be preventable at times but a quicker response time with the right equiptment may have contained the fire quicker.

 

[Katzndogz]

The money that was supposed to be used for firefighting in the forests have to go to support the poor in the cities who don't care about forest fires as long as the get their beer paid for.