Also, there's a 20th firefighter who is very badly burned but still alive. He's in a hospital in Prescott. His survival is far from certain.

He put his son in the car and drove to downtown Chicago and said, "This is where the firefighters live."

He drove out to one of the suburbs and said, "This is where the bankers live."

There's more than one kind of respect in our society.

They're utterly appropriate and right.

They named a street after him, here in Colebrook, which is not something small New England towns do lightly.

He put his son in the car and drove to downtown Chicago and said, "This is where the firefighters live."

He drove out to one of the suburbs and said, "This is where the bankers live."

I... pretty much hate that story. Or maybe just hate the dad in that story.

I can walk down the street in my hometown and see the faces of people who might not be alive except that I was there at the time and place I was needed. I would damn well live a hovel to pay for that.

...president of our local bank at the time of his death, and also a member of the local volunteer fire department. They named a street after him, here in Colebrook, which is not something small New England towns do lightly.

Yes.

###

Wildfires are a hell of a thing.

And they're only going to get worse as climate change makes our dry places drier and our wet places wetter.

From what I'm hearing, there may have been a significant number of residents trapped by the fire. The evacuees they've been interviewing don't think everyone in Yarnell got out.

Yarnell was not under an evacuation order because they thought they had the fire under control, and the winds were not blowing towards town. Most residents only had minutes of warning -- a dry thunderstorm blew up over the fire, then there was a gust front from the storm, the wind changed, and there were 50 mph winds driving the fire towards the town with NO warning.

John 15:13

That said, it's awfully hard on the people who are there for the right set of reasons and practicing heroism.

Good people. I'm sad to hear there are fewer of them now.

Were it not for the federal tap that will never, ever be turned off, there's a lot less of the West that would be considered habitable. Had things gone a little differently, all of Colorado Springs could have gone up two weeks ago. In my opinion, it's only a matter of time before we lose a city.

None of which makes the sacrifice in Arizona any easier.

The bicycle junkyard in Rye went up in flames.

http://www.paysonroundup.com/news/2013/jun/30/all-bikes-all-gone/

If that fire had gotten away from the firefighters and gone up Oxbow Hill, it would have roared into Payson like a freight train.

Either way, it's powerful, and never fails to make me misty even when it's not attached to a tragic event such as this.

Because, let me tell you: fighting fires is one of *the* scariest things that anyone could ever hope, or pray, or fear, to do... or not to do.

Except that when you're a firefighter, not being that or not doing that is precisely what you are *not* supposed to do.

Which is why I call them heroes. And, at least for today, everybody else is too. As well they should.

Greater love hath no one than this; and they gave the last full measure of devotion, each and every one.

May flights of angels sing them to their rest.

If, when I die, it is said of me: "She did the work required of her", my shade will be happy.