Anyone still around?

[BCFD36]

Haven't heard anything for quite some time. Anyone still around?

--
Dave Scruggs
Captain, Boulder Creek Fire (Retired)
Sr. Software Engineer - Stellar Solutions (Definitely Retired)

[Andy Valencia]

BCFD36 <bcf...@cruzio.com> writes:
> Haven't heard anything for quite some time. Anyone still around?

Still living in semi-rural corner of the Seattle region (I stay the same, but
boy has the environment gotten crazier and crazier...). Happy to see
somebody around!

> Dave Scruggs
> Captain, Boulder Creek Fire (Retired)
> Sr. Software Engineer - Stellar Solutions (Definitely Retired)

Andy Valencia
Home page: https://www.vsta.org/andy/
To contact me: https://www.vsta.org/contact/andy.html

[pH]

On 2021-05-27, BCFD36 <bcf...@cruzio.com> wrote:
> Haven't heard anything for quite some time. Anyone still around?
>

Well, my tail and whisker...yep, I'm still subscribed but have not had
anything to add of late.

Happy to see you posting.

Any good CZU stories? We hear some interesting things about CDF sometimes
here in Aptos.

pH

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Wed, 26 May 2021 23:42:50 -0700, BCFD36 <bcf...@cruzio.com> wrote:

>Haven't heard anything for quite some time. Anyone still around?

I'm still here.

--
Jeff Liebermann je...@cruzio.com
PO Box 272 http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Ben Lomond CA 95005-0272
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

[pH]

On 2021-05-29, Jeff Liebermann <je...@cruzio.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 26 May 2021 23:42:50 -0700, BCFD36 <bcf...@cruzio.com> wrote:
>
>>Haven't heard anything for quite some time. Anyone still around?
>
> I'm still here.
>

Hi, Jeff!

Captain Scruggs sent everyone a cheery Hello and has now disappeared into
the ether.

How close did the last fire (See-Zee-Ewe!) get to your palatial abode?

How 'bout you, Captain? Did fire threaten you?

pH in Aptos where a "warming fire" (hah, don't believe it) was down below us
in Niscene Marks (sp).

pH

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Sun, 30 May 2021 03:44:13 -0000 (UTC), pH <wNOS...@gmail.org>
wrote:

>On 2021-05-29, Jeff Liebermann <je...@cruzio.com> wrote:
>> On Wed, 26 May 2021 23:42:50 -0700, BCFD36 <bcf...@cruzio.com> wrote:
>>
>>>Haven't heard anything for quite some time. Anyone still around?
>>
>> I'm still here.

>Hi, Jeff!

Please read your email from about 2 weeks ago. I sent you some stuff
on an Ideale leather saddle. If you can't find it, I can resend.

>Captain Scruggs sent everyone a cheery Hello and has now disappeared into
>the ether.

Bah Humbug(tm). Well, it's good to know he's alive and hopefully
well.

>How close did the last fire (See-Zee-Ewe!) get to your palatial abode?

About 1500 horizontal feet. The blue marker is my house. The orange
is the fire perimeter:
<http://www.learnbydestroying.com/jeffl/CZU-Fire/Jackson%20Ave%202020-08-29.pdf>
Much too close for comfort. A change in the wind direction and the
house would have been gone. I made several big mistakes:
1. I moved everything out of my office and into the house just before
the fire started.
2. I stupidly left the windows open before evacuating. The house
looked something like the 1930's Dust Bowl.

>How 'bout you, Captain? Did fire threaten you?
>
>pH in Aptos where a "warming fire" (hah, don't believe it) was down below us
>in Niscene Marks (sp).
>
>pH

[pH]

Well, let's hope that everything has burned that can near your house,
anyway.

I have checked here now and again...but w/ no activity have not posted.

We have some chicks now w/ our broody hen.
I wonder how many pets were lost in this fire? No one thinks to rescue the
chickens...there is not a poultry evac....lucky horses.


pH

[BCFD36]

I didn't disappear, there is too much of me to just disappear. I got
busy with life and just now got back to Usenet.

We are still good. The fire did not cross over Hwy 9 so we were okay in
that respect. We never (or at least not for long) lost power so we did
not have the dead refrigerator problem that many others had. We were
evacuated for a couple of weeks though, first due to the fire danger,
then due to the possibility of the water being contaminated.

I spent the first 11 days of the fire at the fire house except when I
went to my mother's house in Sunnyvale to sleep and de-stress.

There are many stories to tell about the fire, and I can't tell most of
them. There were many things going on that were not for public
consumption. I am going to just keep my damn mouth shut.

But I will say this... Chief Bingham and BCFD and with the Cal Fire
Engine Crews (note that I said engine crews) saved Boulder Creek, along
with Carl Kustin and his personal connections from all over the USA and
the world. BCFD got help that was completely unexpected and completely
necessary.

I got a call from Chief Bingham early on the first day when things got
interesting asking if I could come down and answer phones in the office.
I asked how soon he needed me and he said ASAP. So down I went to the
station. I proceeded to answer phones for the next 36 hours, with a
break here and there. The evacuation took place that night. It was
crazy. I had called my wife and told her to pack the car earlier "just
in case". "Just in case" happened and she took off with the valuables
and the dog about 9:30 pm for my mother's house in Sunnyvale. My oldest
daughter and her kids, dog, and cat joined her in the procession going
down Bear Creek. It took quite a long while to get to Sunnyvale.

Meanwhile, I am fielding phone calls. It was harrowing. I don't know how
the 911 operators do it. I've fought wildland fires, crawled into
burning buildings, gone into wrecked cars to check for survivors, done
CPR too many times and none of it was as stressful as answering those
phones. The call from Lodge Road from a older couple who was real close
to getting burned over was maybe the worst, except when their grown kids
called from Lake Tahoe to tell me the same thing that their parents told
me. I had told the parents to just get in the car and drive and don't
stop for anything. We had no engines available, they were all committed
on other problems. And whatever was going to happen would be over before
we got an engine to Lodge Road. I am happy to report they made it out.

The next afternoon, Chief and Cal Fire and everyone else was convinced
downtown BC was going to be overrun. That is what should have happened.
Chief asked me to leave and I did. I didn't want to. I mean I REALLY
didn't want to, but I didn't want him to worry about me. So I left. One
of the guys who was on BCFD early in my time there was cooking for the
troops borrowed some gear and got on a private water tender.

After everyone was supposed to be gone, he closed all the doors,
searched the building to make sure no one was still there, and all
engines patrolled the downtown BC area. His plan was to at least save
downtown. At that time, there were engines 2110, 2111, 2137, 2142, Water
Tender 2152, some private water tenders, and some command vehicles.

Before I left town, I went back home. I had some fire hose I had been
given from Lockheed and connected it to the nearest hydrant. I proceeded
to wet down everything I could. I then grabbed my keyboard (my wife had
taken the computer, but not the keyboard) and some other stuff my wife
had no room for. I then video taped my entire house to document what we
were going to lose. BTW, in a very early conversation with Chief, he
told me that he was not going to send any engines into my (and his)
neighborhood since there is only one way in and one way out and he was
not going to risk it. I told him I never had thought anyone would be up
there.

I went to Sunnyvale. It was a near thing since I was exhausted and am
too old for this shit. I posted on the 19th that I thought there was a
50% chance that my house would make it. I'm glad to say that it did.
There is no good reason why nothing over burned. I found my yard and
deck covered with burned and black leaves and needles.

I went back the next day. Carl had showed up and started taking things
in hand at the station. The boys and girls had been sleeping on the hard
cement floor of the engine bay when they could get any sleep. At least
we were eating good.

My son, who is on BCFD but was waiting to go to a HAZMAT school for the
Air Force National Guard had asked me to get our Air Bed for his
girlfriend and come pillows so I had her taken care of. Carl started
getting sleeping space set up in the rec hall with cots and sleeping
bags and whatnot. Someone had to do it, but there were just not enough
people. The young'uns were fighting the fire, I was trying answering
phones, my buddy Kirk was cooking, and that was it.

This is getting rather long. I am only to day 3 of 11.

There is one more story though, and it is my favorite story. I played a
small part in it. Whilst answering phones, on the 19th I believe, I
picked up the phone and I hear, "Its me." WTF? Oh! "Robert, what's going
on?" "I'm gonna come home, I can't sit out here." Now I am really
confused. How is he going to leave a military base (Ft. Leonard Wood,
Missouri) while in quarantine waiting for his class to start. He had
just finished Basic Training in Texas and this was his next post.

He says, "I don't know but I'm going to do it." A couple of hours later
he calls back and says that the Red Cross is going to call and get
details. I went out in the engine bay where there were some people
getting some food and some rest and told them that if they took a call
from the Red Cross, give them to me. And I put a note next to all the
other phones that that affect.

In a couple of more hours I see "American Red Cross" pop up on the phone
LCD and answer. I talk to a nice lady at Lackland AFB who is with the
RC. "Robert is trying to get home on a Compassionate Leave. I understand
that there are a few houses on fire and his may be one of them."

Me: "No Ma'am", in my best Texan, "there's 48,000 acres on fire. He is a
firefighter here. We could use the help."

"Oh, okay. Who am I speaking to please?", in a deep West Texas accent.
Actually, you have reached his father. I am on phone duty."

"Oh, okay. Is there anyone else that can confirm all of this?"

"Let me go look and see who is around." I put the phone down next to the
radio so she could enjoy all the radio traffic and went out into the
engine bay. It is empty. There is no one to be seen except the cook.

I go back to the phone, "There is just me and the guy cooking. Everyone
else is out fighting the fires."

"Oh, okay. I will take care of it." Another hour later Robert calls back
and says he will be home tomorrow, not sure what time yet. It turns out
that he talked to the Sergent at the AFT who called his Sergent at
Moffett Field who called the RC who called me.

I picked him up at 7 pm the next day. Note that he has been gone for a
couple of months by this time. Getting OUT of Boulder Creek and the rest
of the San Lorenzo Valley was not difficult at this time, it was getting
back in that was difficult. They had CHP and Santa Cruz County Deputies
manning road blocks and almost no one was getting through. Fortunately,
I still have my BCFD Id, a helmet and some turnout pants so not only do
I look like I belong, I have an Id to prove it.

At the time they were seriously thinking that the fire was going to make
a run down the Bear Creek drainage that night. I went out that way, but
my plan was to come back through Scotts Valley. Robert is dressed in his
uniform and carrying a duffel bag. Unbeknownst to me, he has contacted a
buddy he played football with that is with the CHP to smooth the way
through the roadblocks. We get to the roadblock and I am about 5th in
line. I pulled out my Id and we wait. The cops are having no excuses and
everyone is getting turned around. Robert's buddy is nowhere in sight.

It is my turn finally. I am holding my Id out of the window but before
the CHP even saw the Id said, "Scruggs? Go right on through". He had
seen the uniform. I didn't need the Id this time.

To wrap this thing up, we drove through the valley that was eerily
deserted and quiet. I drove past the station and parked over on the
side. Before I had even stopped, his girlfriend had the car open, yanked
him out of the car, and proceeded with what looked like an assault. Or
something.

There is much more, but it is late and no one read this far anyway.

[David Arnstein]

In article <s97hrf$1m7g$1...@gioia.aioe.org>, BCFD36 <bcf...@cruzio.com> wrote:
>On 5/29/21 20:44, pH wrote:
>There is much more, but it is late and no one read this far anyway.

I read every word. This is a de-lurk by the way.
--
David Arnstein (00)
arnstei...@pobox.com {{ }}
^^

[Julian Macassey]

On Wed, 26 May 2021 23:42:50 -0700, BCFD36 <bcf...@cruzio.com> wrote:

> Haven't heard anything for quite some time. Anyone still around?
>

Of course we are. Posting helps.

--
It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through
disobedience and through rebellion. - Oscar Wilde

[Julian Macassey]

On Wed, 2 Jun 2021 02:09:11 -0700, BCFD36 <bcf...@cruzio.com> wrote:
>
> There is much more, but it is late and no one read this far anyway.

Are you kidding?

Fascinating stuff.


--
"Fuck yourself" Dick Cheney to Sen Patrick Leahy when asked about
Haliburton. June 25 2004.

[BCFD36]

On 6/2/21 11:20, Julian Macassey wrote:
> On Wed, 26 May 2021 23:42:50 -0700, BCFD36 <bcf...@cruzio.com> wrote:
>> Haven't heard anything for quite some time. Anyone still around?
>>
>
> Of course we are. Posting helps.
>

I didn't know you were waiting on me.

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Wed, 2 Jun 2021 02:09:11 -0700, BCFD36 <bcf...@cruzio.com> wrote:

>There is much more, but it is late and no one read this far anyway.

I read it all. Fascinating and thanks to you and Robert for saving
SLV.

[Julian Macassey]

On Wed, 2 Jun 2021 17:28:31 -0700, BCFD36 <bcf...@cruzio.com> wrote:
> On 6/2/21 11:20, Julian Macassey wrote:
>> On Wed, 26 May 2021 23:42:50 -0700, BCFD36 <bcf...@cruzio.com> wrote:
>>> Haven't heard anything for quite some time. Anyone still around?
>>>
>>
>> Of course we are. Posting helps.
>>
> I didn't know you were waiting on me.

You are one of the more interesting posters on this
group.

--
There are times when I get through the day by looking around the office and
thinking, 'My God, aren't the natives here strange.' - Genevieve Bell

[pH]

On 2021-06-02, David Arnstein <arnstei...@pobox.com> wrote:
> In article <s97hrf$1m7g$1...@gioia.aioe.org>, BCFD36 <bcf...@cruzio.com> wrote:
>>On 5/29/21 20:44, pH wrote:
>>There is much more, but it is late and no one read this far anyway.
>
> I read every word. This is a de-lurk by the way.

Hi, David Arnstein.
Personal question: Where in the BA catagory are you?
I'm in the Aptos Hills, on the border of Nisene Marks State Park. So I
guess I still qualify as Tim May over in Corralitos posted here as well.

pH

[David Arnstein]

In article <s9essg$1iv$3...@dont-email.me>, pH <wNOS...@gmail.org> wrote:
>Hi, David Arnstein.
>Personal question: Where in the BA catagory are you?
>I'm in the Aptos Hills, on the border of Nisene Marks State Park. So I
>guess I still qualify as Tim May over in Corralitos posted here as well.

I am not qualified at all, I live in the southern end of Alameda county.

I like lots of places in Santa Cruz county, and I have enjoyed lurking
in ba.m-f over the years. Cross-posts with ba.food started my interest
in ba.m-f.

[pH]

Thanks for the reply and helping keep usenet alive.
I guess I can take off my Groucho Marx nose and glasses then and post away.

ph

[BCFD36]

I am in Boulder Creek

[BCFD36]

On 6/2/21 19:36, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
> On Wed, 2 Jun 2021 02:09:11 -0700, BCFD36 <bcf...@cruzio.com> wrote:
>
>> There is much more, but it is late and no one read this far anyway.
>
> I read it all. Fascinating and thanks to you and Robert for saving
> SLV.
>

Thanks, Jeff. I deeply appreciate that. I had little to nothing to do
with saving SLF. It was BCFD, BLFD, FFD, the CAL Fire crews, Carl
Kustin, and all of Carl's allies that did it. And of course later on the
strike teams from all over California. I just answered phones. But I'd
have paid money to be on one of the engines or a water tender.

[BCFD36]

On 6/3/21 09:16, Julian Macassey wrote:
> On Wed, 2 Jun 2021 17:28:31 -0700, BCFD36 <bcf...@cruzio.com> wrote:
>> On 6/2/21 11:20, Julian Macassey wrote:
>>> On Wed, 26 May 2021 23:42:50 -0700, BCFD36 <bcf...@cruzio.com> wrote:
>>>> Haven't heard anything for quite some time. Anyone still around?
>>>>
>>>
>>> Of course we are. Posting helps.
>>>
>> I didn't know you were waiting on me.
>
> You are one of the more interesting posters on this
> group.
>

Thank you. I try.

[Jeannie Hobbs]

On Wednesday, June 2, 2021 at 2:09:06 AM UTC-7, BCFD36 wrote:

> There is much more, but it is late and no one read this far anyway.
> --
> Dave Scruggs

Hi, Dave, thanks very much for the post. We came out relatively unscathed as well, having evac'd to my in-laws' in Fremont for three and a half weeks, but we did have to deal with the post-power-outage fridge/freezer issue as well as burnt leaves. Fortunately we had two neighbors who refused to leave, plus one CHP who lives in the 'hood, plus a PG&E-employee friend down the street who came up and watered the deck plants with my rain-barrel water.

Thank you and Kirk and so many others for your hard work in saving our town.

Jeannie

[pH]

Great Jumping Horny Toads! It's a 'ba.mountain-folk' post.

Hi Jeannie.

There are quite a few stories about how "helpful" CDF was and how helpful
the County is being now in helping homeowners rebuild.

I think it's something like 90 permits issued out of a thousand homes
burned.

Glad your house made it through okay. We're here in Aptos.

Pureheart