I agree with Mike, there is a clear biased against the railroad by a lot of people. Several people added very intuitive comments about the possible causes and what added fuel to the 416 fire.
I think Mr. Bradshaw and the railroad have gone above and beyond what the really should have, but he has stepped up and spent a lot of money to prevent and combat fires they may have been associated with the railroad.
As for Mr. Chione, he is a great photographer but, should not be considered a fire expert based on his comments.
As a firefighter for over 30 years (both as a paid and volunteer, AS and BT degree's in fire science) I can tell you that fires can start in so may ways. As a young paid firefighter we spent a month trying to teach a local restaurant about the proper way to store/dispose of greasy/oily rags...as they had repeated fires. Brush fires can start in so many ways that are not associated with coal cinders. I have been up in those mountains and there are so many potential sources of fire up there...namely discarded bottles, poorly managed camping fires, hikers, lightening strikes and I could go on. Those who find it easy to blame the train are just plain ignorant about fires and nature. You could remove the coal powered steam trains and there will still be fires. Steam powered trains (along with the scenery) is the reason we pay the big bucks to go out there.
One VERY smart gentlemen even mentioned why the place is even more vulnerable the lack of forest service management in allowing the harvest/removal of the dead pine trees from all over the region. I once conducted a counter-drug mission for 30 days in the Sequoia National Forest during a very bad fire season. I made the same observation there why the SNF was suffering such a bad season when the nearby Indian reservation was almost free of fires, she indicated that the Indian Leadership allowed dead foilage to be removed and thus removed the additional fuel from the area. You could almost see the delineation of the two reservations. Too many environmentalists have gotten involved and literally added the fuel to the fire instead of logical forest management. The problem is fires happen in nature, and always have...but man has encroached upon them. You cannot have it both ways unless you manage the issue. If man is to exist with nature you have to find a happy medium to address the issues. Easy for those who live in the nice big houses up in the mountains surrounded by the dense forest to blame the railroad. I almost bet if I did a fire survey of a lot of those properties I would find the same evidence that existed in the Black Forest Fire in Colorado Springs a few years ago. Land owners were more concerned about having their houses in and amongst fuel rather cutting it back and away and practicing safe fire measures.
I did not hear of any of those apparently snobby fire ignorant people who are biased against the steam trains volunteer to go out into the forest to make it a more fire safe environment...instead they sit back and rant against those who actually do something to make it a safer environment for everyone. In my opinion they should just sit back in their nice big houses up in the woods and say thanks to those who actually do something to make the place safer...PERIOD!
Like I mentioned on the C&T Fire post the D&S also could benefit from a dedicated group of volunteer firefighters & Narrow Gauge buffs who could operate a "Fire Goose" in the mitigation of fires along the right-of-way. Seconds to minutes count when fighting brush fires...the quicker you are on them the quicker they are controlled. One man running behind a train is not enough to do a great job putting out a building/running fire in the early stages. It is an effort, feeble at best, but an effort. In seasons like this, it may require a bigger effort. A helo with a bambi bag as a back-up to the ground crews would be a great step.
Just my two cents!
Jon
