Fireside Chat and/or Nero Fiddling

Yesterday, Michael Kinney, head of the Sierra Madre Fire Safe Council, came to Chantry with what he admitted was a "dog and pony show". He called last week with the cryptic announcement that he had something that would "save the Pack Station". It turns out that someone (namely the manufacturer) convinced him that we need trucks with air-powered fire hoses. The idea was that we could knock down a fire immediately after it starts. I suppose as soon as someone drops a cigarette in the brush we would smell the smoke, hop in the fire truck and just drive it four miles along the two-foot-wide Stock Trail to Spruce Grove; and of course, the fire would wait for us to come squirt water on it.

I try to ignore all the yap and circumstance of our own Fire Safe Council, but it seems to me nothing can replace some good old-fashioned fire clearance. A fire will come through here some day and all we can do is hope for the best.