Good for Andy! He spotted a fire Monday and wanted to report it just in case the Forest Service didn’t know. The problem is they’re set up for phone calls, not for email and our phone reception up on the land sucks.
So he poked around on the internet until he found an email address in Santa Fe and sent this message:
Sorry to bother you but I don’t know how to report a fire without a phone. There is a fire, growing slowly, a few miles Due S of my location [gave details].
You may well know about this already in which case I’m sorry to bother you.
He didn’t expect a response, and there wasn’t one that day, but driving home he met a ranger who knew about the fire and was coming to check. Clearly everything was under control.
We thought that was the end of it, but yesterday he received various emails with the addresses of people to contact if it ever happened again. One person apologized for not responding sooner, but we were impressed. Clearly the gal Andy wrote to had passed his message on to other people…the system had worked. (They did know about the fire but thanked him, they appreciate local citizens looking out for the forest.)
Andy will write down the most appropriate email addresses and tape them to the back of his Chromebook…he will be all set if he ever spots another fire.
We’re not too worried at the moment, the weather forecast was talking about rain and flooding, not about fire:
KOB-TV
We haven’t had as much rain as we used to get before the drought, but we’re happy to see it!
July 22, 2020
We may have rain here today. I huge peal of thunder just sounded. Incidentally, I put that word “may” in italics because, well, you know how these predictions go.
I don’t rely on the weather guessers either. I’m just grateful when it rains.
OH! bless Andy! bravo.
I don’t know why it should bring tears to my eyes but it has.
it’s just so beautiful to know that people like Andy protect the land!
even if it’s a distant way away. and it’s even more heartening to know
that THAT is appreciated and valued by those in charge of it.
it’s just all good.
Yes, I was happy when that person showed appreciation. In most cases they would already know about it, but they encourage people to report anyway, just in case. That friendly tone means a lot.
I hope the rain puts the fire out. He sure did the right thing!
They are just watching it because it’s in a bad location and the weather is on their side right now. Fingers crossed.
Good for Andy. With something like that, it is always better to assume they DON’T know. Glad all was under control.
It’s nice it will be easier for him next time.
Glad he was able to help and took the time to report what he saw instead of just assuming someone else had already done so. Fires can get out of control SO fast!
At the moment we’re lucky about the weather.
that’s great that the Net gives you the opportunity to make contact and it all has worked out in the end, the gratitude and “how to contact/future”
there has been NO shortage of rain here at my place (NZ) but the powers to be in town water supply still bemoaning the % in the dams! None of the dudes on eye-watering salaries considering time to build more “tanks” for a population that isn’t going to fade anytime soon…i.e. all these returning citizens getting into the numbers of 50,000 ain’t gonna live in remote places, they will certainly gravitate to the city!
Sadly, planning ahead isn’t the first priority of politicians. 🙁
Glad it all worked out and now he has contact info if he needs it in the future
Yes, we’re happy about how it turned out.
So glad they returned the email and now you are prepared fire is a really scary thing. Glad they caught the fire and that didn’t come your way. For the past 5 days our drought has been broken by p.m. thunderstorms but our house has only gotten a quarter to a half inch each day which is nowhere near enough it comes and it booms and it flashes in it pours for just a few minutes and then it’s gone which hasn’t helped our need for water we need a two or three in our everyday. But today on thankful Thursday we are glad that we have been getting our little quarter inch today
We would like more rain too, but we’re thankful we’re getting any. I just checked the drought map and it looks as if the land is in the moderate drought zone. That’s a lot better than a couple of years ago.