My wife and I were in Tlaquepaque buying furniture on Oct 24 when my daughter called and told me we had been requested to take my bulldozer to help
fight the fires in southern california. I flew home on thursday and joined up with my daughter at the Slide Fire near big bear on friday. The wind had
died down and most of our work was cutting fireline to contain the fire as it was now safe to do so. My main reason for this post is to make the
readers aware that Wal mart donated hundreds of cots to our fire camp making sleeping a whole lot easier for hundreds of tired firefighters. I did not
get to see many news programs during the siege but I do not believe wal mart made public what they did. So I will. Thanks Wal mart. I also want you
all to know that Firefighters read your thank you signs and it means a lot to us.Natalie Ann - 10-30-2007 at 08:42 PM
Smoke... I watched some of you and read of your courage in fighting this fire. What YOU did means a lot to us. Thank you.
I'm not a big fan of WalMart, but I'm glad to hear they were there when it counted.Sallysouth - 10-30-2007 at 09:05 PM
Smoke, I have not heard of Walmarts contribution, or involvement.Maybe for lack of press? All the contribution centers were not very close to me,
altho one mentioned and heavily covered on the news(CBS) was Stater Bros. There is one by me and they were not even participating(I asked!)Beside
that, Thank You for helping to protect property and life.You, Sir are One Special Man!And I Thank You from the Bottom of My Heart!! My neices lost
their homes up in BB......BornFisher - 10-30-2007 at 09:44 PM
Props to you and WalMart. Real heroes don`t need press conferences! And thank you to all personnel who put themselves in harms way to protect our
homes and families. Really an amazing job under the worst conditions!wiltonh - 10-30-2007 at 09:47 PM
I saw one mention of Walmart and it said they, along with others donated bottle water. There was nothing said about any other donated items.Lindalou - 10-31-2007 at 04:51 AM
I have always been a fan of Wal Marts, having an RV and being able to stay in their parking lots when needed, now I am an even bigger fan of theres
and a fan of yours now too. Thank you......Bob and Susan - 10-31-2007 at 05:56 AM
yea...
but don't think you'll stay in a walmart parking lot in san diego or chula vista...
those guards WILL kick you OUT!!!bajalou - 10-31-2007 at 07:02 AM
Quote:
Originally posted by Bob and Susan
yea...
but don't think you'll stay in a walmart parking lot in san diego or chula vista...
those guards WILL kick you OUT!!!
Not Walmart's fault - some RV park owners put so much heat on the city councils that they outlaw any overnight parking like this.Lindalou - 10-31-2007 at 11:57 AM
Bajalou, this is going on in a lot of towns because of the greedy RV park owners, we just moved from a town that was doing there best to get our
walmart to stop letting RV's stay there. We don't blame walmart at all, they always let us stay when they can.
[Edited on 10-31-2007 by RichnLinda]Smoke - 10-31-2007 at 06:48 PM
Thank you all for the kind words. I read all the posts about the fires when I got back. Looks like the Nomad members had a pretty good information
chain going. You guys new more about the fires than we did on the fires.Sharksbaja - 10-31-2007 at 08:03 PM
Cool! Good on you bro! Now if they could just get those"Made in China" stickers off those contributions....docsmom - 10-31-2007 at 09:28 PM
Smoke,
Thank you for your efforts! I'm assuming you are a firefighter and if you are I ask you to share my thanks with your compadres. As a Southern
California native I have family and friends in every local that was in danger. To all that gave their efforts during such a catastrophic event, all
are heroes!
Big Bear was my home for 5 years back in the '70's and I spent time in BB, GV and Arrowhead. To see the devistation that has occured in the past few
years has made me very sad. All of us who know about these areas and have been watching them for 30 or so years know what we can do to try to
minimalize catastrophic fires in the future..... I'm sure you know what I mean.
And thank you Smoke for pointing out the contribution of Wal-Mart. It's the first I've heard of it. Tragic that the media won't mention Wal-mart in
a positive light. Thank you for telling the truth.
Ah, got a little political here. Didn't mean to!
To get back to the point, THANK YOU SMOKE FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTION. I APPRECIATE IT!Smoke - 11-1-2007 at 08:30 PM
Docsmom, Thanks again, yes I actually retired from Cal Fire 2 years ago after 38 years of service. Unfortunately I have scene similar tragedies many
times in many different parts of California. I still respond to fires with the agency during times when resources are spread thin.
The fact that Wal Mart did not publicize their donation makes me believe there was no alterative motive just an honest effert to help.
