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Brushfire started at shooting range yesterday. Gun nuts are a threat to public safety.

"The fire was reported at 2:27 p.m. at the Wenatchee Rifle and Revolver Club and was roughly 2 acres when crews arrived. The cause of the fire is undetermined."

Helicopters and planes roared overhead until dark, fighting a brush fire in the foothills of Wenatchee, WA. Wenatchee is filled with smoke that triggers my asthma.

Karen and I drive by the gun club on our way to go hiking. Set against a cliff, the shooting range is constantly filled with litter. Pigs. In high wind, a gun nut likely tossed a lit cigarette on litter, starting the fire.

Back to this morning's report:

"The three-alarm No. 2 Canyon brush fire has been contained at approximately 5 acres.

"Hand crews, helicopters and Fire Boss planes (love that name) stopped the fire spreading deep into No. 1 Canyon, said Chief Brian Brett with Chelan County Fire District 1. The fire was considered contained about 6:20 p.m.

"The fire was reported at 2:27 p.m. at the Wenatchee Rifle and Revolver Club and was roughly 2 acres when crews arrived. The cause of the fire is undetermined.

"Responding to the fire were fire districts from Chelan and Douglas counties, the state Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Forest and the Bureau of Land Management.

"We can't thank our interagency partners enough to making this a successful stop on the fire," Brett said."

"Level 1 fire advisory notices issued to residents of the two canyons were expected to remain in place overnight, according to Sgt. Kent Sisson with Chelan County Emergency Management."

Side question

Why did white settlers name the two main canyons "Canyon No.1" and "Canyon No. 2"?

Didn't they have any imagination?

[wenatcheeworld.com]

LiterateHiker 9 June 19
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12 comments

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1

Having fought brush fires, I know they can be a pain. I never had to do it in canyons. That just makes it worse. It sure sounds like it came from the gun club, either a cigarette or a bullet ricocheting off the right rock.

@BudFrank

Exactly.

1

Love the question at the end!

@Barnie2years

Reminds me of Quincy, WA, a wheat-farming town.

East/west streets: A, B, C, D....

North/south streets: 1, 2, 3, 4 .....

@LiterateHiker The street at the bottom of my street is Wilson Drive. If you make a left turn, the T you come to is Willson Avenue. Even I have trouble a lot of times remembering which is which!

1

irresponsible gun owners are a menace.

redhog Level 7 June 19, 2020
0

I'm glad that the fire is out, and they figured left and right is a point of view thing. 🤔😁

@oldFloyd

The fire is contained, not out. This means firefighters dug a fire break around the perimeter of the fire.

With wind, wildfires frequently jump across fire breaks.

Now Wenatchee is filled with smoke that triggers my asthma.

@LiterateHiker sorry for the smoke I can understand, the ones around here destroy everything with 4 wheelers. Hopefully the fire is out soon.

1

Both smoking guns and smoking humans can be a big problem.

1

Happy they did get it out without any major spreading .Only reason i can see for the naming of the canyons 1 and 2 was when the first exploers came they gave them those designations for directions as an actual name would mean nothing and it just stuck,the locals just never got around to give them an actual name ,\now why do you not start an on line contest for your area to actually name the canyons ,would be interesting to see what comes in for names

4

Guns are not widely associated with Canada but I live in wild wild west Canada. Most people around here own rifles and shotguns. We already have two gun ranges locally but there is an application to develop a third. They want to attract more city people to come out here to shoot. Ack. I've lived out here for 10 years and have never needed any kind of guns for protection. We aren't allowed to shoot people anyway although we can shoot animals (non-human ones). I'd never shoot an animal so no use for a gun for me. Anyhow, our place is surrounded by farm fields and we've had random shooters in the fields not aware that there is a house here behind the trees. My dogs are scared of gun shots and my horses are out in the pasture behind the trees part of the year, close to the fields where these people are shooting. There is a requirement to shoot no less than 200 meters from a housing area but if they can't see a house behind the trees they don't know we are even here.

Oh, and someone shot one of our coyotes while off our property, and she came back to our property and bled to death. When we found her, we didn't know what was wrong with her and we tried to find help with wildlife services, but she did not make it. She had a gunshot wound to her hindleg. I would never forgive this person who shot a coyote and left her to die slowly from her wounds. She was a member of one of the packs on my property; they are all fully protected by us while on our property but we can't do anything when they are away from our property.

@graceylou

Thank you for your well-written, insightful reply.

@LiterateHiker Haha. Thanks. But it was just a quickie I wrote before teaching my ESL student on Zoom.

3

This is on the club 100%.
No range I have used in the last 20 years allows smoking on the range. It’s a hazard. Especially if you are using black powder weapons.
There should have been a range officer and a fire extinguisher for just this sort of thing.

90% of the range fires I have seen were due to tracer rounds shot in tender box conditions.

2

Why is it the scum of our nation love to play with guns & matches..? Boys, incapable of growing up? Trash, envious of what others treasure? Suicidal misfits ..is my best guess, too scared and arrogant to go alone..

Varn Level 8 June 19, 2020
3

That is just a careless disregard for the environment and wildlife.

We have our problems in Australia but mostly due to weather and inept Bush management.

It makes me sad to see a total disregard for natural habitats.

@Geoffrey51

In America, 84% of wildfires are human-caused.

@LiterateHiker That is tragic, especially those that we see raging in California.

1

"a gun nut likely tossed a lit cigarette on litter, starting the fire."

I'd just like to point out that accusations are not proof.

That is all.

SCal Level 7 June 19, 2020

@SCal

That's why I used the word, "likely."

Locally, gun nuts have started many fires with carelessness.

Even if we don't know how, we still know who in the generic sense by the location of the fire.

@LiterateHiker Nature also starts fires, among other things. Those are more likely.

False.

[smithsonianmag.com]

@LovinLarge Sure about that?

@SCal

In America, 84% of wildfires are human-caused.

@LiterateHiker @LovinLarge Thank you for the information.

1

Why don't they have fire extinguishers with them?

@LucyLoohoo

Yahoos and gun nuts are careless by definition.

@LiterateHiker Silly me. Why should people who carry guns to extend the length of their penis need to consider anything else?

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