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Idiotic government bureaucracy keeps California firefighters sitting idle while the state burns!

Published on October 26th, 2007

Posted by SN in General

Associated Press – October 25, 2007:

As wildfires were charging across Southern California, nearly two dozen water-dropping helicopters and two massive cargo planes sat idly by, grounded by government rules and bureaucracy.

It took as long as a day for Navy, Marine and California National Guard helicopters to get clearance early this week, in part because state rules require all firefighting choppers to be accompanied by state forestry “fire spotters” who coordinate water or retardant drops. By the time those spotters arrived, the powerful Santa Ana winds stoking the fires had made it too dangerous to fly.

The National Guard’s C-130 cargo planes, among the most powerful aerial firefighting weapons, never were slated to help. The reason: They’ve yet to be outfitted with tanks needed to carry thousands of gallons of fire retardant, though that was promised four years ago.

“The weight of bureaucracy kept these planes from flying, not the heavy winds,” Republican U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher told The Associated Press. “When you look at what’s happened, it’s disgusting, inexcusable foot-dragging that’s put tens of thousands of people in danger.”

5 users responded in " Idiotic government bureaucracy keeps California firefighters sitting idle while the state burns! "

# 1 Major Jizz said, on October 26th, 2007 at 3:47 am

George Bush doesn’t like forest people!

# 2 TV said, on October 26th, 2007 at 4:43 am

In regards to the air federal response, Californian local authorities, held up that response for pragmatic reasons. Local authorities know where the back burn fires are located. The fear was that the federal air response would spot these isolated fires and douse them. Therefore, California authorities were endeavoring to have locals armed with this information to assist any federal response. In addition to 100 MPH Winds and logistics, Air response isn’t that simple. We can’t always Count on Government to pull our butts out of the fire…….

# 3 domc said, on October 26th, 2007 at 5:36 am

From the local newspaper in San Diego:

Fire officials said efforts to fight the fires from the air were hampered by a heavy curtain of smoke that restricted visibility enough to keep two of the world’s largest air tankers from flying.

Tanker 910, a converted DC-10 jumbo jet, had been aiding firefighters with drops of fire retardant earlier in the week. And Wednesday afternoon,the massive Martin Mars flying boat arrived at Lake Elsinore from British Columbia.

But with smoke obscuring vision, the decision was made to shut down both aircraft for safety reasons Thursday afternoon, said Cal Fire air operations chief Mike Padilla.

“Visibility is really down,” Padilla said. “They’re still attacking (the fires) with smaller aircraft and helicopters.”

Already delayed in arriving due to customs red tape, the Martin Mars has yet to see action in San Diego County.

Responding indirectly to criticism from politicians over the amount of air support available to firefighters, Carlsbad Fire Chief Kevin Crawford described the amount of aircraft on hand as “unprecedented in any county.”

“We have begged, borrowed – and by some estimations, even stolen – aircraft from other portions of the state to fight (these) fires,” Crawford said.

# 4 MikeN said, on October 26th, 2007 at 11:32 am

There’s also a Russian plane that wasn’t used, because it hasn’t passed federal inspection.

# 5 Joshua said, on October 26th, 2007 at 11:25 pm

California and other western states have had very deadly plane crashes in these wind driven fires in the past…..a**holes can bitch all they want, but there is a very good reason those planes weren’t in the air after the second day.

Some people, mostly those without a clue, just aren’t happy if they aren’t accusing goverment of screw up’s on a daily basis.

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