My nephew is on his third season on a Helitack (HAC1R) team in Northern Alberta and was actually supposed to be in BC to lend assistance but didn't make it down to Edmonton for his flight out. He is waiting for the call to join them. These young men have to be under 180 lbs due to helicopter weight restrictions with their 50# of gear. He must be just barely under that limit... These guys don't make a whole pile of money, they do it because of the thrill and adrenalin rush of being the first in to a fire and rappelling down (Alberta doesn't use parajumpers anymore). This is definitely not a safe profession to be in but he wanted to be a Calgary city firefighter - I told him to get some seasoning by getting in the forest fire side. Hope I don't regret my advice to him.

I have been on the fire line in about a dozen wildfires and close to many others over the years. Wildfire is nothing to mess around with. In bad conditions, they spread with unbelievable speed.

If a mandatory evacuation order is issued, staying in your home is a very bad call. Some do and survive. Others don't.

My home in Southern Cal has been seriously threatened by fire on two occasions. Both times I have had the car loaded up and ready to drive away, all of this before the any voluntary or mandatory notices. We have a priority check list which does allow us to get the important items loaded. The rest is just "stuff" and can be replaced. The house is insured and can be rebuilt. Saving the lives of my loved ones and our pets ranks way ahead of any of the material loot we have accumulated.

"Segway" is the one person self-balancing vehicle. "Segue" (pronounced exactly the same) is a transition from one story to another. The name of the vehicle is a pun on the "transition" meaning of segue.

(Proofreading is part of my job, and I apologize for any offense.)

And that is a better article.

Bloody 'eck, you caught me! You're exactly right.

... and I just learned something new. I have never heard the word "segue". I guessed what it meant by context, even though it was misspelled as that two-wheeled rolling vehicle.

The board meeting for the 2 wheeled contraption must have been hilarious.

'Lets call it Seque.'

'What the hell is Seque.'

'Well its seque, the transition from one story to another, its a perfect allegory for this revolutionary form of human transportation for those that can't be bothered or too lazy to walk'

'But folks won't understand!'

'Hmm, lets call it Segway instead'

'Great, that's settled then!'

The traditional method of naming high technology products has moved on a little.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK6pPw1pGEE

I may be a little slow, but what's the lesson here?

Did anyone else besides Doug actually read the article? The guy's death had nothing to do with the evacuation, I'm not even sure why it was mentioned. The title of the article would have been slightly more accurate if it had read "1 dead after heeding evacuation orders". From the way it sounds you could pick any number or random events and tie it to his death, it could have been called "1 dead after drinking his morning coffee". Seems like it was just a freak accident which just happened to coincide with an evacuation order at the time.

Yes, I noticed that, too.

Maybe the lesson is, if it's important enough to evacuate the area, maybe it's important enough not to stop to cut firewood on the way out.

I was responding more to the other 50 people in the area who thought standing in the way of a wildfire was a good idea.

Sue

I'm too lazy this morning to go back and read it again. Does it even say whether they were still within the evac area when they stopped to cut wood?

Yes. Emergency crews had to go into the evac area to pull them out. (Gives head a shake.)