EJ,

I am glad to hear that it looks like the fire has died down finally. Your post made me think back to when I was in Kansas.......sounds like they haven't changed over the 40 years.

I remember one weekend, my Gramps took us all on a car trip on the turnpike. As we were driving along, we saw a house that was on fire. There was no sign of any fire department at all. I am not sure why, but my Gramps pulled over to the side of the road & we were watching to see what was going on. It had looked like the fire started in the attic. The owners were trying to put out the fire & get things out of the house.IIt seemed like almost 1/2 hour or more (my mother & grandparents commented on how long it took for any help to come), but finally up the road came a fire truck.......one of those real old fire trucks with a real old wooden ladder & a hose about the size of a garden hose. They stood there checking out the house.......then ended up basically just helping the owners take out the things from the house.

I am afraid of fires......to the point where I can only use the really long wooden matches. Having a fire that close to your house on a windy day is definitely stressful.....knowing how they spread here in California once they are started.....usually in windy weather.

When I first started working after college, we moved into our first house with a wooden roof...close to some hills. My manager was a volunteer fireman in a close by town & had a scanner in his office. He heard about a fire that sounded close to my home & came into my office to tell me I should go home & take care of my home. Luckily it wasn't that close enough to do any damage & was out very quickly.

We had a huge fire 2 years ago. All of the smoke came into our valley & I, along with many others ended up in the ER with resperatory problems & my GP ended up putting me into the hospital. I found out later that what caused the fire was a hawk that flew into the power lines & broke one that hit the ground causing the dry brush to catch on fire.

I can understand your aggrevation about people being irresponsible in taking care of their fires let alone a fire department that wouldn't do anything to help out.

Take care,
Debbie