Wind the clock back a bit...

1988...

The '49er fire burned down half my county. It was the first of the forest-urban
fires that we've seen over the last 20 years. Half of my neighbors had their
homes in ashes that week. The firebombers flew from sunup to sundown, load
after load, in an attempt to put out that fire.

We had a party the day that the fire was over at the county fairgrounds for the
firemen that helped with that effort. Most of us still had soot in our hair and
ashes in our shoes.

Halfway through the party, CDF launched the firebombers on a "practice mission".
They came over the fairgrounds about 200' off the deck and at full engine power.

Y'all ever seen ten thousand people hard-crying at once?

Jim
Jim Weir (A&P/IA, CFI, & other good alphabet soup)
VP Eng RST Pres. Cyberchapter EAA Tech. Counselor
http://www.rst-engr.com