The same fire that Barton is being charged for, right? Who were those “they” who were charged? I hope they’ve been exonerated! How awful to have to take the fall for something this awful when you really didn’t do it.
I have so many issues with this topic I am going to explode so I will take it one step at a time.
I called all my family and got a few friends to donate some $ so I can take some supplies up to the fire fighters. I have enough to take 42 cases of water up there but since I have a Honda, this is not a possiblity but my uncle said I could use his truck; which I might take him up on that in the morning, we’ll see.
I am leaning towards taking up enough water, sunscreen and chapstick to help them out.
I realize that the feds have given the money to this battle of the fires but the less that they have to spend now means more for potential fires later which is an extreme possibility. I hate to admit it but this isn’t the end of our fire season, as much as I wish it were. They are close enough that our donations, and me taking those directly make me feel comfortable. This means I am reasonably certain that the fire fighters will have access directly to the donations I have solicited and put up with my own money and from friends and family. The 9-11 donations, I have no idea if they got there and 100% which bothers me.
I know there is more that I can do and next week I will sign up for them. This week is a different story as I have baby-sitting in the chunk. Last week was so sudden and so confusing, it was hard to tell what they needed. So next week, I will plan on spending time on the lines of cooking, washing or whatever the fuck they need me to. This week I will deliver supplies, it’s all I can do and I wish I could do more.
Some bitch on our local news decided to say that all smokers are to blame for this even though, from the beginning, this was assumed to be a campfire and low and fucking behold…it was from a forest service employee. So we smokers are the cause of all ills in this life.
She said we smokers are selfish and the fires would not have started…blah, fucking blah…if it weren’t for smokers.
YOU FUCKING BITCH.
A smoker didn’t start this fire, it was some bitch pissed off at her ex husband’s letter, apparently. But to blame ALL SMOKERS for this shit pisses me off. Never mind that I took up a small collection effort. Never mind that I have altered my smoking habit in my home and in my car. That bitch needs to kiss my big fat ass.
In all fairness to Sunshine Rilch…that quote was from 5 days ago. Those were the details coming out at that time. They were unclear as to what was the actual cause of the fire prior to to day but the press was reporting that it was a campfire gone wacky while some people were out on their ATVs.
In addition, Sunshine never said (from what I read) that anyone was charged for anything. The first time this was an issue was today when the woman (Terry Barton) was charged by federal prosecutors today.
You have me very confused on what the hell you are talking about.
techchick, I’m not calling Sunshine a liar! The media said that about campers/ATVs/unattended fire, and everyone seemed to believe it, including me, until Barton was charged. I quoted Sunshine’s post because it was quicker than doing a CNN search.
I didn’t say she said anyone was charged with anything. What I was saying was “So these phantom campers either didn’t have a fire or didn’t exist at all! Huh! Did Barton actually implicate innocent people for her crime, and if so, have their names now been cleared”?
I am still curious. Was anyone, prior to Barton’s arrest, in custody for allegedly starting the Hayman fire?
Linus, I’m in Prescott; my boyfriends parent’s–both former Forest Service employees–live in Mayer.
You know when something is so incredibly awful that you burst out laughing? That’s what we did when we heard that it was a FS employee–and how/why she started it! Gods, how incredibly stupid and self-centered can someone be?
The mind boggles.
P.S. *techchick68–don’t you know us smokers are responsible for War, Famine, Pestilence and Death? :rolleyes:
Squish, I just hope that this incident does not give Forest Service employees a bad name. The vast majority that I have encountered are friendly, helpful, knowledgeable, and very concerned for the forest, both for its own sake and for the people who want to enjoy it. I bet your boyfriend’s parents cringed when they heard the news. I wonder, as Duck Duck Goose did, how many times she has warned people about fires. I also wonder why, if she felt the need to burn a letter from her ex, she felt it was necessary to start a camp fire for that purpose.
Rilch: It’s turned out that the Forest Service moron made them up. As far as I know the ATV people don’t exist. There was a big manhunt for them, but …since they weren’t real, weren’t arrested or charged.
Fenris
Okay then. Should have realized that when the news reports didn’t specifically mention “Joe Smith and Mary Brown are in custody”. :smack:
One-armed man, bushy-haired stranger, and ATV-riding campers. :rolleyes:
I mean, I’m glad no one was apprehended because they had the misfortune to be near the site and fit a vague description.
Um, they found out who did it. Apparently it was a woman that actually worked for the wildlife fire protection agency, or some such organization. She started it by burning a letter sent to her from her estranged husband, and things got out of hand.
She finally confessed yesturday.
According to a federal arson investigator who I just heard on the radio, he thinks there may be more going on than just the “burning love letter”, given the way the fire spread at the beginning. The idiot talk-show host wouldn’t shut up, though, so I don’t know why.
And the forest service JUST announced that they do NOT consider the fire “accidental” and will press charges accordingly.
Fenris
Frankly, given her propensity for whoppers, I think the “burning letter from an ex” story is complete and utter bullshit. It’s an attempt at sympathy. Oh, the poor dear! Someone just shattered her existance, let’s cut her a little slack. Give me a break.
How long does a letter take to burn? What, did he send her a Dear Jane manuscript?
Plus, if the letter was that god-awful important that you have a ceremony to burn it, wouldn’t you watch the entire friggen page burn? So she started it in the upper left hand corner, got distracted by the time the flame had reached mid-page and then 100,000 acres of woodland were started by the embers of the bottom right?
Hey Barton, kindly cease and desist from blowing any more smoke up my ass.
She just better damn-well hope that no one gets seriously injured or dead from this fire… If that happens, she’s really up Shit Creek.
How’d you like to be personally responsible for destruction of the Shit Creek watershed?
The last news I heard said she burned the letter, thought it was out, then came back a short time later to find the campfire area ablaze. I am just dying to know what the letter said. How long will it be before the media has the husband in front of the cameras?
Such a senseless tragedy. My sympathies to everyone who has been touched by this. I used to live in Colorado Springs, and my parents lived just south of Denver in Aurora. Too bad we can’t ship our overabundance of water here in Cleveland to Colorado.
She actually blamed a family in a (gold?) minivan. Gave the authorites their license plate number and everything. The people were cleared of any wrong-doing after an interview with police.
If the letter story is true, I bet her ex is somewhere laughing his ass off.
lieu: 
Are you thinking what I’m thinking—that this may have been an attention getting fire, started so she could get the glory of reporting it?
That was the first thing that came to my mind when I read about this. In Australia, it’s not uncommon for arsonists to turn out to be members of the volunteer fire fighting services. It may be for the glory of reporting it, or the glory and excitement of helping fight it. Either way, it’s a recognised phenomenon, and I suspect it’s common practice for this to be one of the first avenues of investigation when compiling a list of suspects.