Sheeeze like a war zone out there today

General Discussion
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sheeeze like a war zone out there today… . Around 3 pm there were so MANY sirens… I thought there must have been a huge wreck on the freeway which is just a couple of blocks from my house. The sirens kept coming and going back and forth… I can’t see the freeway from my house because of the trees. I decided to not get in my car to go look since I’d just be in the way… Well, those sirens kept coming and going. for over an hour. Then all of a sudden it was like being in a war movie! A whole bunch of bombers flew in low to the ground. ominous rumbling… The houses rumbled, they were so close. Not just one or two planes it was like a squadron of them flew in… We are up in the foothills so not in a flight path but the airport is only 10 miles away on the flats.

Those planes kept coming in low, then they’d circle and go back to the airport and the next bunch of bombers would come in. Like right over head… a couple of hundred feet. It sounded just like a WWII movie with bombers flying in… (No bombs though but big Whoosh sounds)) I was wondering why this sounded familiar. and ominous… It finally dawned on me. “WILDFIRE!”

It started just 3 blocks from my house and burnt up the whole mountain. (I would guess someone was playing with fireworks because there has been no lightning storms lately to set off a wildfire.) I got in my car and the road just above our houses was blocked off to traffic so I went down to the old highway and up on the basalt cliff where I could see the whole mountain. They converted a whole bunch of B52’s to do fire retardant/water drops and those were the planes that were flying in so low. Those planes (and newer ones) can hold several tons of water/fire retardant in their holds. They fly in just a couple hundred feet above the fire and then they drop their loads over the fires. Back and forth. Fire crews were there from all the local cities and towns and even Utah.

We live on the southeast side of town right up under a mountain that is grass, sagebrush and trees. Rugged to climb so they air-drop the suppressants and send in mop up crews for hot spots. Now that it is dark I can see a whole bunch of glowing embers up there and small fires… the twinkling red lights are kind of pretty - like a whole bunch of tiny city lights. Oh… the bombers stop their runs at sunset. Because they can’t see the mountain, just the fire.

Oh, They evacuated the houses above me but no one lost their homes yet. They hope to contain it before the fire goes over the crest and into a more forested area where people live.

ok. End of fire action report for Pocatello, Idaho

Oh. for those who live in larger urban areas, you won’t see these bombers. They are for rugged, rural, wildland areas. It takes them awhile to assess the fire to see if they can put it out using regular resources before they call in the bombers. And those bombers have to fly in from their fire airport bases all across the western states. Those airport fire bases are posted in smaller airports all around the western states so when a fire breaks out there is local support and gives them time to call in planes from other bases if they have trouble containing the fire.

If those bombers are going at it again come morning, I’ll mosey over to the airport to see how they load those planes. Oh, The airport is for prop (propeller) planes. The runway is too short for jets. I suspect they are loading the planes from the navy station, lol Believe it or not, there is a naval station in landlocked, high-desert Pocatello. :rofl:

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Sorry to hear about that happening in your area, but so far it looks like they have everything under control, and that’s a blessing. So many ppl have lost their homes this year bc of wildfires; I cry every time I watch those news.

During the September 11 attack we had so may jet fighters flying over our building, and it was a traumatic experience bc the noise in those things is unbelievable. Our house shook like we were having an earthquake, and to make matters worse I was in the border line of the Twin Towers that had just disappeared. I thought we were been attacked and was waiting for the bombs to be dropped. I know what you must be feeling like right now.

Just be careful if you venture out to watch since it can be dangerous. Hoping to keep receiving good news from you, that no one lost their home, and they’ll control this fire and put it off with no injuries or other consequences.

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:astonished::astonished::flushed:
You really experience something there
Are the bombers you mean, Comparable to the Transall? It happens so rarely that I see a Transall,
But the thought that so many are in the air at once :astonished: That must be scary and incredibly exciting at the same time… Has the fire been put out?

I’m still angry today of me,
A smaller Transall, Still powerful…
My horse drinking, The Transall comes flying, The bottom About my horse because they flew a curve
I had a photo shoot in my head, Get my cell phone out of my pocket, And didn’t work…
Until it worked again, Horse gone, plane gone :confused:
:frowning: :joy::joy::joy:
Nix Foto
That would have been a great picture :sweat_smile:

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The fire is out except the mop up crew is checking for hot spots. Good thing it hasn’t been windy the last few days.

Yea, The old ones are converted propellor planes similar to your transall. I don’t know plane models at all but they looked like those old ones you see in WWII movies.They had newer ones also. I don’t know the names of them. They all made the houses rumble when they flew in so low.

This is a newer BLM style. There were two similar to this one …
BLM = Bureau of Land Management

There was also a yellow prop plane similar to this one. (At least it was painted this color but it had a different boxier body shape. boxier body. :slight_smile:

Places with larger airports even have jets but our airport is too short a runway for a jet to take off and land. Also, The valley here is too narrow and steep for a big jet to swoop in.

Oh… This picture is in the same area as my house. The houses are right up to the steep parts of that hill. That right side of the mountain down and around the corner (that you can’t see in this photo) burned from the crest down to the house line.

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It’s very nice that the fire is out :slight_smile:

You live there :heart_eyes: that looks really great,
What a mountain :slight_smile:

always find it fascinating how one could ever build such aircraft, That they don’t just fall from the sky… As heavy as they are… But it is the same with ship, That it doesn’t just go down🤔
What geniuses, Who the right mediocrity discovered :thinking::slight_smile:

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Reminds me of that time I saw some kind of jet fighter flying right past my window back when I was living in Helsinki.

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I just found the OST for this thread:

:joy::wink::sunglasses:

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:rofl: OMG Where in the heck did you find that song… :joy: :rofl:

(Wisconsin Cheezy!)

Oh! For those who don’t know, the State of Wisconsin has a stereotype of being the CHEESE state because they have a lot of dairy there just as the State of Idaho is the Potato state because about all we grow here (because of he short growing season) are spuds. :sunglasses:

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Hahaha, well, the first time I heard of the band was many years ago, when I heard another song of them on the radio. Too bad it’s not on YouTube anymore (if it ever was), otherwise I could let you hear it. It was a very weird song and internet did exist, but wasn’t in every household yet, so I once heard it on the radio, hardly understood what the dj said about it (I initially thought they were called The Violent Vamps! :rofl: ) and then for a long time couldn’t find the song anywhere. So it became one of those mysteries.
Years later they released a new album or whatever so they were on the radio and in magazines again and then I discovered more of their music.

Haha, maybe it’s because I’m also from a “cheese country”! :joy:

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Just had an ah-ha moment. I used to watch a cartoon called The Amazing World of Gumball and one of the side characters was a potato called Idaho. I thought it was just his name but apparently not! And to think there is a stereotype that Americans don’t know anything outside of the US, It seems I don’t know anything inside the US.

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I think sometime that we Non-Americans recall Americans as “the Americans” is related to how movies, music, literature sold the “typical” American and since it needs to be polished to sell even better, it isn’t really necessary where the movie for example is placed, Seattle, New York, Alabama, Boston just make it a nice sweet story and it will work all around the globe.
Stories from inside the US as the real US rarely get outside, you might get (in Germany) some “reality TV shows” from bridal shops, or style advisers, but if that is all American TV can offer … Oh, oh …

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Reading Paul Beatty’s The Sell-Out was sure hard for me and other non-Americans. I did recognize a lot (but not all) of the music the author was referring to, but there were a lot of other things mentioned (but not explained) which maybe only Americans (and maybe not even all of them) know about.
It still was a great book, but it needed a lot of focus and even some research.

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The worse culprit is movies for sure.
Not helped when even US late night show host present social experiment items like:
Host: “Should we bomb Iraq?”
Random US person on the street “Hell, YEAH!”
Host: “Where is Iraq?” Shows unnamed, outlined countries world map.
Person points to country " Here I think"
Host: “That’s France” audience laughs

We have satellite TV and get all those reality TV shows. Our youngest daughter loves and probably watched every one of those wedding dress shows (alarm bells - her wedding is going to be really expensive!)
My wife watches Outdaughtered, about the day to day trials and tribulations of the Busby family that had the first ever all girl quints. (alarm bells - kids are money pits!)
I try to steer clear of the slice of our life shows. Mine is complicated enough as it is without taking in the lives and problems of others too! Prefer watching documentaries to actually get benefit of being educated.

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Thankfully our national TV program still has some sort of educational task to follow. Every household has to pay for it, only a few do not have to contribute, isn’t it the same with your old BBC and some people want to cut the budget and rather enjoy trash TV.

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Oh, so you have to pay a TV license too, I thought it was a very British thing. It’s how the BBC is funded, it all goes into a pot and any programming, educational or not is paid from it. So when the BBC produces a stinker, that when the demand intensifies for a reduction in the fees. :smile:

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I think couple of European countries have such a fee for TV, more quality and education purposes. I think France has it too plus we got the French-German TV station that’s also availble within other European countries now.

Many public TV stations also post their stuff (like documentations) on Youtube now so also more kids and teens watch it too and at least the German TV stations founded special online only sub stations for kids and teens. The reports and documentations there are usually shorter, 10-25 minutes, but interesting though. And different to former days the viewers can discuss about the report/documentation and sometimes when it is about more serious topics the moderation of the TV station also gives advice to the viewers by posting informative links for real life organisations that could help them with a certain problem, so I think it’s quite good that they created these special sub stations for kids and teens.

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Well, In the US FREE Airwave tv is paid for via very annoying advertisements. You can also subscribe to cable, streaming services and specialty channels. Some of those channels have advertisements, others do not.

The U.S does not force a fee for tv because to force someone to pay for entertainment is anti-american. They don’t have to watch if they aren’t interested nor do they have to pay for it.
There is a national PBS or Public Broadcasting Service. that is funded by viewers and corporations and by tax money. PBS tends to have educational and documentary programming along with World news and children’s programming.

When the governing cohort wants to cut spending, they attack PBS first rather than their favorite pork barrel projects. (Pork Barrel projects " Pork barrel is a metaphor for the appropriation of government spending for localized projects secured solely or primarily to bring money to a representative’s district.")

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I have PBS America on one of the satellite channels, I watch it quite often because they do have some interesting documentaries on there.