Just the other day I was driving the girls home from school and as we got closer to home we kept seeing a helicopter. Back and forth. Back and forth.
I pulled into our driveway and saw that it was at the river right across the street from our house. Literally, right across the street. And it had this weird thing on a long rope attached to it.
And then this truck. This truck was parked right next door.
Come to find out there was a small forest fire just over the mountain a few miles and this helicopter was part of the crew keeping it in check. Well, the helicopter and the firefighter pilot and crew of course.
This nylon flexible bag holds 90 gallons of water. And the bend in the river right across the street was perfect for the approach, filling and and departure of said helicopter.
Apparently, the US Forest Service was bulldozing a swath around the fire and then using this helicopter water bucket method to dampen the swath.
And let me tell you, they were fast.
And efficient.
And done in no time flat.
And it is nearly all we can talk about here on my little street. For this was big news in our little community. And if you have ever lived in a small, rural town you know that we will continue to talk about it for weeks, if not months, to come.
-dana
22 comments:
How exciting!! My town is sooo small that I'm going to talk about it here too and get everyone buzzing.
i've never seen that before. pretty cool. i'd be yapping about it too!
too bad you can't get those guys to come when you need to fill a pool or something ;-)
I live in a small town too, and know about town gossip. How fun you got to see how they do it and take pictures. I've seen this from afar, but never up close. We don't have a river like that in our back yard.
~a
It is exciting to watch them do that! We were at a mountain lake one day and sure enough here come the helicopterS to fill buckets. We would even get a shower as they flew over us. :D
Cool! Nice pictures too :)
Fantastic fingers on your camera button--that could be made into a flip book :)
Fires are so scary and we have them here so often in SoCalif. It's one of our regular seasons of the year...glad your local fire was attended to immediately!
I live in one of the smallest town in the smallest state. That would have been headline news here too! We just got over terrible flooding last week and it's still the top news story.
I do love my little town.
Do you live on the border of East Tennessee? If you do, then the fire's in my little town - Elizabethton.
Wow, that's cool! Wish we'd had that available when our neighbor's house burned down (that's a sorry tale for another time). You did a great job taking shots of the action, and I bet it keeps the folks at the local coffee shop buzzing for weeks!
Hahaha sounds like my small town too!! How about the time the manhunt was underway in my yard for a man who shot at a police officer????? Could you imagine the buzz???
Just last week we had a man driving down main street pulling a wagon load of hay that was on fire and he pulled into the gas station and stopped near the gas pump!!!! They finally got him to move before everyone was blown up in flames. They would have had the helicopters with those 90 gallon buckets out there for sure!!!!!!!!!!
Great news!!!! I have never seen that before either!
I live in a huge city and that still would have been awesome! Fire is out and all is well I hope!
Oh wow! What an event that must have been! And how neat that you were able to see it right up close!
Sincerely ~ Trish
The fire part is of course not fun but the helicopter would be neat to see in action. Thanks for the pics!
Way cool to see that. Glad all ended well.
Having grown up in a small town, I know the excitment it must have caused.
They use the same method to help battle the forest fires out here. It is amazing to watch.
Wow, I live in a rural town that experienced a wildfire yesterday. What are the chances?!?!
Dana
we get them here too.. very small town but lots and lots and lots of bush (and the major freeway north about 2kms away) BUT our talk of the town was about 3 years ago the ARMY decided to bring a helicopter to the local high school for 'careers expo' (I might add our high school has 500 kids - tops) anyhoo, the helicopter landed but couldn't take off, it was there with armed guards for TWO WEEKS almost.. everyone went and had a squiz! peeps still talk about it.. I guess we need to get out more! :O))
take care
Lissa
Australia
I totally can understand your excitement. How cool that your little town could provide water to those in need! :)
Fantastic photo-op. Thanks for sharing the excitement!
Great photos! This is what my Father-in-law does for a living. A very dangerous job, stringing that line on a helicopter. He spends most of his time looking out of his door at the line... He loves every moment of it. Love your blog by the way....
How cool is that??? Wouldn't it have been cooler if they could have detoured a bit and spilled some of that water in the tadpole ditch?
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