This picture is from the Esperanza Fire in California. Four firefighters died in the fire. In my limited experience fighting fires (about 15 fires plus a couple of prescribed burns) I have not encountered a fire anything like what these guys are dealing with.This gives a little bit of perspective, to me anyway, about things. Things have to go very bad very quickly for firefighters to die in a wildfire.
9 comments:
Yeah, it probably doesn't happens like this often, maybe only a small "fat tail", but be very, very careful when you are out fighting fires anyway. I am sure you are anyway, but....
That's scary business. I really admire the men and women who do this work.
I heard it was arson and murder charges will be brought, if they can id the arsonist(s). Though, not much comfort to the families.
how can you effectively manage money and be a fire fighter?
Are you joking? It is a volunteer department. We train on Saturday. We had one fire this summer that I worked on for about five hours. We average two or three medical calls a month which take about 90 minutes each, so I squeeze it in, thanks.
Roger, Confession time; I am very grateful that I stumbled accross your blog. I was stumbling around on a self guided tour trying to pick stocks for my IRA for decades without a clue what I was doing(that hasn't changed). I got so disgusted with myself and my results that I decided to go into EFT's full bore(typical) because I was sure I could understand big themes. I'm not so sure now. But I did see your face and read your written word on the ETF Investor site on Seeking Alpha. Reading your blog convinced me that I needed some professional help so I gave some money to Morningstar to find better how to value ETF's. They don't have squat about ETF's compared to what they have about mutual funds and STOCKS (american ones, even). Anyway, your easy to read style of writing and assessments that are, aw shucks, tinged with humility have convinced me to limit some risk and spread out into all sectors of the economy. I read yesterdays blog about the compressions of PE's that are called for over the next several years by the paper that was referenced. It seems to combine both top down (sectoral) and basic bottom up (stock picking)analysis. About your firefighting, I always remember one thing. Firefighters walk into danger when every instinct we humans have say run. Thank You for what you do. Tom in Indy
Managing money is a lot like fighting fires.
Roger:
Because of my electrical background I read NFPA stuff.
You probably know this, but one of the leading causes of deaths to fire fighters is heart attack, and automotive accidents. So you need to be stay in shape and be sure to focus on your driving (rather then talking on the nextel, etc.) when you are on the way to the fire.
There has been a frustration that they have not been able to do more about reducing the death toll of fire fighters at the actual fire. I have seen speculation that many of the fire prevention techniques lead to less fires, but the ones that get through wind up being really scary. Wildfires are particularly problematic because of the fuel load build up from putting out all the little fires.
Another type of fire that seems to lead to problems is construction site fires. Many of your top property loss fires in any year will be of this variety. There is often a very large fuel load, but very minimal (if any) detection devices. If it starts during working hours the construction workers often put it out themselves, but after hours it can really get going before anyone notices. Fortunately, some of the building owners and constractors are starting to become aware of this problem which can be aleviated by a combination of fire watch and (sometimes) early installation of heat detectors.
I'll stop nagging you now.
Tom in Indy, all i can say is thank you.
Russell120, you are right about heart attacks. If I have one it won't be for a lack of physical training that is a real issue relative to the small number fatalities every season.
Post a Comment