James Hutchinson; the fire

James,

I didn't want your situation to get lost so I'm making a separate post. Please, when you can, keep us informed. Hope all is well.

Knowing your interest in wildlife and what's going on near you I thought you might like to see this.

<http://www.pbase.com/image/30966012>

It is not mine. I received it by email and can't get the original but even so it is an impressive reminder of the power of Mother Nature.

Bob

Arggh!!! What have I missed? I, too, hope Mother Nature is kind to Jim and all others in the area.

That photo is heartbreaking. :(

They seem to have gotten the upper hand on it for now. We certainly appreciate your thoughts. They now have all of the equipment and manpower they need and the prevailing winds are pushing it away from us.

--
Have A Nice Day, :-)
James Hutchinson
http://www.pbase.com/myeyesview
http://www.myeyesviewstudio.com/
wrote in message

James,

I didn't want your situation to get lost so I'm making a separate

post. Please, when you can, keep us informed. Hope all is well.

Knowing your interest in wildlife and what's going on near you I

thought you might like to see this.

<http://www.pbase.com/image/30966012>

It is not mine. I received it by email and can't get the original but

even so it is an impressive reminder of the power of Mother Nature.

Bob

Thanks Beth, were fine.

--
Have A Nice Day, :-)
James Hutchinson
http://www.pbase.com/myeyesview
http://www.myeyesviewstudio.com/
wrote in message

Arggh!!! What have I missed? I, too, hope Mother Nature is kind to Jim

and all others in the area.

That photo is heartbreaking. :(

Those sighs we hear, then, are ones of relief rather than the winds, eh?

Dick

You got it! We even left the house today and had a picnic on the mesa.

--
Have A Nice Day, :-)
James Hutchinson
http://www.pbase.com/myeyesview
http://www.myeyesviewstudio.com/
wrote in message

Those sighs we hear, then, are ones of relief rather than the winds,

eh?

Dick

Thinkin of you James...take care !!!!!!! We need you !

The fire has burned itself into a dry creek drainage where there is very little fuel to burn, the air crews have not flown in 4 or 5 hours which is a good sign. I am told (information is hard to come by) that unless something drastic changes that the danger here is over for all but the firefighters who are mopping up the hotspots. Thanks for your concern Jodi.

--
Have A Nice Day, :-)
James Hutchinson
http://www.pbase.com/myeyesview
http://www.myeyesviewstudio.com/
wrote in message

Thinkin of you James...take care !!!!!!! We need you !

Jim,

Great news.

Bob

James,

Glad to hear that the danger appears to be over .... and hope that there isn't too much mess.

Wendy

That must spell relief!! Glad to know you're out of danger :-)

Bob : that photo is nothing but excellent !!

Ray

I got this picture about 2 years ago.
It was purported to have been taken in the vicinity of the Los Alamos fire that threatened the National Lab and was sent out from a Washington office of DOE.

Was I the victim of a hoax?

M

Mac,

Do you mean you got the same picture I posted and with a different source description than I got? If so we both are victims of a hoax. It seems to be an original, unedited photo but these days who knows. It was forwarded to us by a friend who received it from her brother, now deceased, who supposedly got it from a relative.

The original I received is 39kb 720x444 and dated 11/4/2000 without exif complete with 3 water droplets on the lens. Could be a scan or digital. I cleaned it up, applied a little Levels correction and cut the smoke slightly with Unsharp 30, 60, 1. Now the question is the actual source. I don't know the Los Alamos area but I do know Montana and that sure looks like Lodgepole pine and river bank Willow to me. I have Moose, Elk, Mule Deer and Black Bear videos in very similar surroundings (without the fire).

Another urban legend? Why bother with such a compelling subject?

Ray,

I agree. I'm just glad I wasn't the photographer. When I smell smoke I move.

Bob

It is a real fire photo and it is in Montana, but not this year:

<http://www.snopes.com/photos/deerfire.asp>

The latest news from local paper:
News

Cedaredge fire out of control

Tuesday, July 06, 2004

By RON BAIN

The Daily Sentinel

CEDAREDGE - The 3,000-acre McGruder Fire three miles
northeast of Cedaredge continued to burn mostly out of control Monday, with containment reported at 35 percent. Full containment is not expected until Thursday or Friday, said U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Julie Grode.

Lightning was confirmed Monday as the cause of the fire, which encompasses the Cactus Park and Currant Creek areas. Cost so far is $391,300.

An expert forest fire management team, Rocky Mountain Area Management Team A, took charge of managing the fire Monday and were joined by three of the nation's best Hotshot firefighting crews, Grode said.

The firefighting effort includes the three Hotshot crews, local BLM and Forest Service personnel, volunteer firefighters from Cedaredge, Hotchkiss, Paonia and Delta, five single-engine air tankers, 13 fire engines and several bulldozers.

An old hunting cabin went up in flames Monday, but no other structures have been lost to the fire, Grode said. There has been no loss of human life or livestock, she said.

Fire investigators on Monday found the Redlands Mesa tree that was hit by lightning, starting the fire on Saturday, Grode said.

"They can see the tree that was blasted apart, and how (the fire) started and how it spread," Grode said.

An interagency command center was established at old
Cedaredge Middle School to coordinate the efforts of the different entities involved in fighting the fire, Grode said.

Representatives of most of those agencies, including the fire management team, the county sheriffís office, BLM, the Forest Service and the Red Cross, will be answering questions at a community meeting planned for 7 p.m. tonight at the Cedaredge Community Center.

Interagency cooperation has been common in fighting forest fires since the Storm King disaster 10 years ago, Grode said.

"It started with Storm King 10 years ago, when we realized communications were a problem," she said.

Sheriff Fred McKee notified 129 residents of Oak Mesa and Cactus Park of evacuations or possible evacuations, according to a BLM press release. An evacuation shelter has been established at the Assembly of God Church in Cedaredge.

One eyewitness, Debbie Schum, said she evacuated her home briefly Saturday night, then came back Sunday morning and helped fight the fire.

"The blackened devastation covers a very large area," she said.

--
Have A Nice Day, :-)
James Hutchinson
http://www.pbase.com/myeyesview
http://www.myeyesviewstudio.com/
wrote in message

James,

I didn't want your situation to get lost so I'm making a separate

post.

Barbara,

Thank you for clearing up the mystery. Just goes to show how a story and a source can get mangled as it spreads across the web. My Oct 2000 date indicates that the picture had a lot of stops and saves along the way.

Bob

Hi, Mac. Oh, snopes.com gets an amazing amount of stuff, and fast. When I went looking for that photo they were already debunking campaign rumors from the weekend.

Outstanding, Barbara!

I didn't even dream that it was famous enough to be in an urban legend writeup!

So, Robert, there is our answer.
If your deceased friend's brother's relative was John McColgan, then I guess your story is right.
Certainly, mine was just "smoke".

M

Yes, thanks for clearing that up, Barbara. I'd seen that image before, but had no idea where it came from. It turns out it was taken close to where I was born! My parents had some friends that used to own a cabin on that river, and I've often wondered if the cabin survived those terrible fires of 2000.