As residents of B.C.'s Shuswap region work desperately to protect their homes, government officials are urging them to stop seizing equipment intended for provincial firefighting crews.
Over the weekend, the B.C. Wildfire Service reported that essential gear such as pumps, sprinklers, hoses and all-terrain vehicles has been disappearing in the North Shuswap area.
That includes sprinklers set up to prevent the Scotch Creek Bridge from catching fire, which have already been stolen three times.
“Seizing”, they’re doing so much work not to point out that this is theft.
Also “you’re not helping” is a much more positive spin than “you’re making it so much worse”
If you’d read the article it appears that gear is on site but largely unused, hence it’s being commandeered by the locals.
It’s not “largely unused”. It’s there so if the crews have to leave one spot quickly, so can’t gather equipment, to get to another spot.
I take it you’ve never worked a forest fire before.
Could kinda see it frustrating for a group of people surrounded by fire though looking at the equipment that was just sitting there. They are feeling the end of the world a lot more than people who aren’t there and just saying “don’t”.
That’s just cruel and inhumane. Manipulative even. Like a science experiment on behaviour and then acting disappointed someone is going to try to save their own life despite your disapproval. And then still talk like your disapproval about them is the priority for everyone to consider more than their own life.
The people still there are the fucking problem. Maybe if they’d listened to the evacuation order, they wouldn’t be there to see the stuff sitting there, and wouldn’t be frustrated by it. These people need to be charged with theft, and charged for any losses that can be equated to their theft.
Could kind of see how someone facing down an impending roaring wildfire, then stealing from the same people they want help from, might be counterproductive. The people telling them not to steal fire equipment are there. They’re the ones fighting the fire.
No private resident needs that equipment “to save their own life”. They’re on evacuation order, there are safe routes out, they should not be there, and they chose to stay in order to protect their property. The bridge that sprinklers are getting stolen from, for instance, is protected so there will be a safe passage out of the area consistently even if the fire shifts in that direction.
This is about wealth - not health. Stealing that equipment is choosing to fuck over the entire region and everyone else who needs fire protection, just to better preserve their own home, is selfish and stupid.
So those thieves are justified in stealing equipment that could save someone else’s life and/or home?
Yeah, no.
It doesn’t work that way.
The person you’re responding to is basically making the, “steal a loaf of bread to feed your family” argument. It’s complicated by the fact that loaf of bread was already reserved for saving others, but it’s stupid to act like they’re a deranged person without a point.
The desire to not die is a strong one; stronger than logic.
That’s a spurious argument here, though. This is like not buying groceries for two months, having the cash to buy groceries, then stealing a loaf of bread to feed the family.
These people shouldn’t be there, they’re on evacuation order, and they have safe routes to leave. Not one of their lives is in danger that they haven’t chosen. But they did choose - to put their property ahead of their own lives, and in stealing fire equipment they’re putting their own property ahead of the lives of fire response teams and ahead of all the other properties in the same area. They’re willing to have the whole neighborhood burn around them, to cut off safe evacuation routes, all to try and save their own home.
They’re engaging in sophistry and misrepresenting the situation to try and make hindering firefighting efforts into something personally justifiable. It isn’t.
I get that. Then they should leave the area as the authorities requested, not steal equipment from firefighters.
When property overrides lives we’ve completely lost our humanity.
Are you 5? This is the attitude of a 5 year old who can’t stand that Timmy’s tonka truck is not yours to take.
How old are you and why are you not looking at the big picture?
That escalated quickly…