Battling the Blaze

[[JiF]Mike]

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/200 ... ideosemail

CNN.com video of a tanker dropping water on a fire....watch how low this guy goes!

[[JiF]Mentat]

That was awesome. You could see him feathering his rudder.

[[JiF]ALargeWoodenBadger]

When I was in secound year I had a beat up silver Monte Carlo. The paint on the hood and roof line was faded and pealed back in some spots but it started every morning. One afternoon I was making my way from St. John's to Mt. Pearl using a new road that ran along the bluff that separated the two municipalities. I could see a small fire burning in the tree line up the hill off to my right. It wasn't a threat to me so I continued on my way. As I rounded the last turn, putting the fire behind me, I could see a Canso water bomber banking to begin his run. I slowed down to enjoy the view and watched as the water bomber approach me from the valley off to my left. It was a pretty cool sight and for awhile he was level with me. I crept forward around a left hand bend until the plane was coming directly toward me. Extra cool!

I saw the doors open in the belly of the bomber and immediately realized that something was wrong. I just watched as the plume of water was grew before my eyes. It was huge and growing at an amazing rate. I was still moving forward and I remember turning on the whippers just before the water plume smashed into the car. The force pushed the car about ten feet to the right and riped the whippers blades from the whipper arms. It was a surreal event. There I was sitting in an old soaking wet Monte Carlo on a beautiful sunny day listening to the sound on the whipper arms scrapping on the windshield watching a fire growing in my rear view. The force of the drop pealed the remaining paint off the hood of the car and shredded the vinyl that was once the landau roof.

It took me about five minutes to find one of my whipper blades. I left the other wherever it landed when I realized the Canso's partner was preparing his run. Once is cool, twice is pushing it.

Hell of a sight.

[[JiF]LtWaterboy]

When I was in secound year I had a beat up silver Monte Carlo. The paint on the hood and roof line was faded and pealed back in some spots but it started every morning. One afternoon I was making my way from St. John's to Mt. Pearl using a new road that ran along the bluff that separated the two municipalities. I could see a small fire burning in the tree line up the hill off to my right. It wasn't a threat to me so I continued on my way. As I rounded the last turn, putting the fire behind me, I could see a Canso water bomber banking to begin his run. I slowed down to enjoy the view and watched as the water bomber approach me from the valley off to my left. It was a pretty cool sight and for awhile he was level with me. I crept forward around a left hand bend until the plane was coming directly toward me. Extra cool!

I saw the doors open in the belly of the bomber and immediately realized that something was wrong. I just watched as the plume of water was grew before my eyes. It was huge and growing at an amazing rate. I was still moving forward and I remember turning on the whippers just before the water plume smashed into the car. The force pushed the car about ten feet to the right and riped the whippers blades from the whipper arms. It was a surreal event. There I was sitting in an old soaking wet Monte Carlo on a beautiful sunny day listening to the sound on the whipper arms scrapping on the windshield watching a fire growing in my rear view. The force of the drop pealed the remaining paint off the hood of the car and shredded the vinyl that was once the landau roof.

It took me about five minutes to find one of my whipper blades. I left the other wherever it landed when I realized the Canso's partner was preparing his run. Once is cool, twice is pushing it.

Hell of a sight.

Are whipper blades Canadian versions of wiper blades?

LT

ps. glad u were okay and only the car got hurt!!!

[[JiF]ALargeWoodenBadger]

lol - never trust the spell checker!

[[JiF]Mentat]

The day of the fire here, I was running around taking pics all day as you might remember. At one point my buddy working at the gravel pit told me to come down and take pictures of the helicopters refilling with water, as his cell phone camera was so low res. So I took a back road which is private and went behind the pit to take pictures. About 5 different helicopters were running water to the fire and coming to the lake of the gravel pit to refill. Just as I pulled up and ran through the woods to the edge of the lake a helicopter was directly above me and sprayed water on me as it pulled away. I finally got to a good vantage point to actually get pictures. I turned on my camera and it said, "no memory card". I left it in the card reader plugged into my computer. ARG!

After all that trouble... So I stayed there and watched a few choppers come down and refill and then heard a whistle and ran back to my car and found a forest service truck there with three guys freaking out that I was there and exercising and embracing their temporary authority. I left post haste.