Tag Archives: first responders

local news

Happy Trails, Part 84

My faith in our first responders remains strong.

They answered the call last night and fought some wildfires just west of Amarillo. The fire, fueled by howling wind and tinder-dry fuel, for a time threatened portions of the vast medical center way out yonder.

I awoke this morning and learned that the fires had been contained; no loss of life or even any injury. The wind is still brisk and the TV forecasters are telling us they’ll subside sometime this afternoon or evening.

It cannot settle down quickly enough.

Thank you, firefighters. You are heroes in every sense of the word.

***

There. That all said — with great sincerity and respect — I want to share a nasty “fantasy” I’m feeling.

The other evening, with the wind screaming just outside our RV, I had this nightmare scenario. We’re about a quarter-mile south of a high-speed freight rail line. Trains roar past us day and night. The TV weathermen and women tell us about the sparks generated by trains and the potential for starting fires.

The nightmare goes like this: We’re lying in bed. Someone knocks on our fifth wheel door. We open it. The park hosts tell us we have 10 minutes to vacate our spot and get as far away from an approaching fire that has just ignited along the rail line to our north.

Don’t laugh! Please!

I am now thinking it might be appropriate for my wife and me to come up with a 10-minute evacuation drill in case someone knocks on the door in the middle of the night.

Either that or we’ll pack it all up on our own time — and head to the next place.

The latter event is far more likely to occur than the first one.

national news

Teachers have become ‘first responders’

When we think of “first responders,” our thoughts turn normally to police officers, firefighters and emergency medical personnel.

The tragedy that erupted this week in Parkland, Fla., however, has offered a grim new reality. First responders quite often — too damn often! — are people who aren’t trained to fulfill that role. School teachers have taken on that role whenever madmen open fire in classrooms, or in hallways.

A beloved football coach gave his life on Valentine’s Day when he shielded students from the shooter who opened fire at the Parkland high school. He was one of three educators who died while performing acts of heroism.

And yet, they were among many teachers who answered the call when the shooting began.

This is not what educators sign on to do when they take these jobs. They are committed to teaching young people, educating them and preparing them for their journey into adulthood.

The Parkland tragedy, along with the Sandy Hook tragedy in 2012, or the Columbine tragedy in 1999 remind us that danger lurks in places where — in a better world — we shouldn’t expect to find it.

I’ve often expressed my admiration for the first responders, the folks trained to do those tasks. I also have offered by salute to educators committed to shaping young people’s lives and the commitment they demonstrate each day in the classroom.

We must rue the era that has dawned on us that teachers, too, are able to perform acts of heroism. It is, I fear, a tragic sign of our time.

local news, national news

Always time to thank first responders

Not quite five years ago I posted an item on High Plains Blogger that thanked the first responders who helped Amarillo cope with a massive snow storm.

This year, we haven’t been through that particular form of discomfort. Our first responders haven’t been pulling motorists out of snow drifts, or worked day and night to restore electrical power.

Others, though, have been busy fighting grassfires that erupt in the wind and bone-dry conditions that have signaled the return of severe drought conditions to the Texas Panhandle.

https://highplainsblogger.com/2013/02/a-special-word-of-thanks-goes-out-today/

I’ve noted before in this venue about how we should always appreciate the work of those who answer the call when times get tough.

The Texas Gulf Coast has been through an epic deluge created by Hurricane/Tropical Storm Harvey. The 2017 hurricane season also brought destruction and misery to Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. California residents — from Napa Valley to Santa Barbara — have been victimized by raging flames. Americans throughout the Upper Midwest to the East Coast this winter have been battling unspeakable cold, wind, snow and sleet. So has the Deep South, which has seen record cold.

They, too, depend on those first responders to lend aid, comfort and support.

I am absolutely certain they appreciate all the hard work that goes into their protection.

This is my way of offering yet another word of thanks to the men and women who sign on to rush toward hazard — even danger — on our behalf.

I am grateful to have been spared the monstrous snow event that we’ve witnessed during our 23 years on the Texas High Plains. Yes, I want some moisture to fall from the sky — just not in the amount that poured forth in February 2013.

Our firefighters, police officers, utility crews, emergency medical personnel deserve our thanks always. We need not wait for disaster to visit for us to express appreciation for all that they do.

national news

Firefighters earn their heroes’ chops

GRASS VALLEY, Calif. — I didn’t want to be a fireman when I was a kid. My dream was to be a professional baseball player. I had a couple of issues, though, that prevented me from fulfilling that dream.

One is that I lacked the natural talent needed to play hardball for a living; the other is that I was too lazy to work hard enough to improve on the talent that I did possess.

Fighting fires wasn’t on my radar.

It took me a good while to understand and appreciate the firefighters’ ability, their courage and their instincts. I certainly get it now.

First responders are my heroes. Police officers, firefighters, paramedics/emergency medical techs all have earned exalted status in my book.

I’ve been able to use this blog to proclaim my admiration for those who run toward danger. I will do so again with this post.

We came to the Sierra Nevada to spend time with family members and to relax in the woods. We didn’t realize when we made our plans that our Nevada County Fairgrounds RV park would become a staging area for firefighters struggling against forest fires that — according to one of the approximately 1,100 firefighters on duty here — has burned about 14,000 acres.

We have spared no expression of thanks and gratitude to the young men and women we’ve seen moving through our RV park. I’m delighted that some of them have expressed their own appreciation in return for getting a good word.

I extend those expressions of gratitude just to get a thank-you in return. I do so because I mean it with all sincerity.

My police officer friends know how much I appreciate their work. I know many more cops than I do firefighters. My work as a journalist in Oregon and Texas exposed me more to police officers than firefighters.

Now that I am a “civilian,” having retired from journalism, I have been able to watch firefighters up close as they do their dangerous work. Our travels across the country have given my wife and me the opportunity to tell these young heroes how much we appreciate all they do.

They’ve got their work cut out for them here in Grass Valley. What’s more, they damn sure have a huge fight on their hands over yonder in Santa Rosa, which has been incinerated by the flames.

These young heroes deserve all our thanks.

national news

Stories of heroism emerging from Las Vegas

Here they come.Ā Less than 24 hours after the worst mass shooting in U.S. history occurred, we’re hearing stories of heroism from those who just happened to be in the right place at well, the right time.

MSNBC reports today that a number of off-duty police officers happened to be in the crowd attending the country music performance at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino. Some of them were from Las Vegas and Clark County; others reportedly were California police officers who were visiting Las Vegas with their families.

How did they react when the gunman opened fire with his automatic weapon from the 32nd floor of the hotel/casino? What did they do? They reacted as they were trained to react. They sprung into action, shielding other event attendees from the gunfire; they worked to get potential victims off the floor and out of the way; they administered first aid; they talked to each other and to victims, lending aid and comfort.

What’s more, the first responders who were on duty — the firefighters, medical personnel and law enforcement officials — rushed toward the gunfire to do the jobs they were trained to do.

Is there a glimmer of a silver lining to be gleaned by these reports? Yes, certainly. Our hearts still are broken for the victims of the shooting. In this time of national grief, however, it also might be a tiny bit therapeutic to think of the heroes who answered the call.

Let us prepare ourselves for many stories in the future that will remind us of the heroes who suit up every single day to protect and serve the public.

local news

First responders deserve our honor 24/7

First responders are back in the news.

They’ve answered the call in recent days to assist along the Texas Gulf Coast. They are responding at this moment to those who’ll need them in some U.S. territories in the Caribbean and in South Florida. They answer the call daily when homes burn, when motor vehicles crash or when people suffer an assortment of medical emergencies.

The Texas Panhandle War Memorial is going to play host on Monday to a ceremony commemorating the 16th year since the 9/11 attacks on our nation. It starts at 8:45 a.m. at the memorial grounds, next to the Randall County Courthouse Annex on South Georgia Street and the Canyon E-Way.

I feel the need to speak about those individuals. We ought to honor them daily, maybe even hourly. We should thank them when we encounter them.

The War Memorial seems a fitting place to honor them. After all, the memorial offers tribute to those who gave their last full measure in defense of the nation. Those plaques that surround the garden contain the names of the fallen from the Texas Panhandle dating back to the Spanish-American War of 1898.

When you think about it, those are the names of first responders of another kind. They went to war. They fought and died in defense of the nation they all loved.

I admit to being not as faithful in expressing my own gratitude to first responders — the firefighters, police officers, the emergency medical techs, the military personnel. We see them all the time. My wife and I — on occasion — have paid for service personnel’s meals.

But we all ought to extend a hand when we encounter, say, firefighters shopping for groceries at the supermarket or police officers having lunch. You get the idea.

They perform a unique service to the public they serve. They run toward danger when it presents itself.

I am left to use this forum to offer a simple two-word salute, which I know is insufficient.

Thank you.

State news

Storm brings misery — and prompts the best in humanity

Harvey is hanging around. The storm won’t dissipate. It won’t fizzle out and become a memory.

The one-time hurricane that is still ravaging the Texas Gulf Coast appears to be backing up over the Gulf of Mexico, where it is expected to recharge and bring even more misery to the battered residents of Southeast Texas.

What on God’s Earth do we do about this? Well, humanity is left to do what it can to help those who are stricken. It’s the human thing to do.

There’s no good news to be gleaned from this event. I won’t pretend to gloss over any single bit of the tragedy that has befallen that region. My heart, though, is lifted — if only just a tiny bit — by news of the aid that is pouring in from neighboring communities. It is arriving to assist storm victims with transportation, shelter, food, money — even good wishes and prayer.

It’s what we do for those who are caught by the storm’s wrath.

Here we are, roughly 700 miles north-northwest of the battered region. My own feeling of helplessness remains, although we do have a certain sense of empathy for the friends we left behind when we departed Beaumont for the High Plains in January 1995.

I dare not pretend to understand, though, the extent of the misery from which they are suffering. I am left to sit in my safe haven and salute those who are able to assist in any way they are able.

It’s what their sense of humanity and compassion compels them to do. They are answering the call.

God bless you all.

local news

And then came the mist …

I awoke this morning, walked outside and noticed something I am quite certainĀ has been accepted asĀ a major blessing throughout the Texas Panhandle.

The air was full of mist. The humidity was high. It’s been like that all day. The blessing, of course, has been delivered to firefighters, other first responders, farmers and ranchers who’ve been battling their hearts out against fires that have swept across the Panhandle in recent days.

They have destroyed hundreds of thousands of acres of land; I heard these latest blazes are the third worst wildfire event in Texas history.

As the wind calmed down over the past 48 hours or so, firefighters were able to get the fires contained, but not before they did horrific damage to property and livestock and took the precious lives of four individuals who were seeking to stave off the flames.

I thought of them this morning as my day got started. I also am quite certain I was far from alone in sending good thoughts, prayers and perhaps even some positive karma in the direction of those who’ve been battling so valiantly against the sinister forces that brought so much destruction, damage and heartbreak to our region.

The moisture isn’t arriving in huge amounts across the High Plains. It seems to be enough to quell the fire and to give the brave men and women who’ve been battling it a welcome respite.

Is it divine intervention? Absolutely!