This really pisses me off....

[Torque Junkie]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,31019,00.html

This

is disturbing and sick.... If I was the helicopter pilot, I'd have been like "F*ck orders, F*ck the fish, I'm saving these people's lives"

[Guest Friz]

I hope the families sue the pants off the tree-huggers for making that policy and the Forest Service for adhering to it!

[RyanbabZ71]

That is really funked up

Maybe they should put those people who were in the meeting discussing what should be done into a pit with fire and see what happens.  At least the firefighters were actually fighting the fire and working hard.

Very sad story.  

[gmcblu]

Some people have lost perspective.  How many fish do they stand to lose from a few dips, anyway?  The fish were obviously given priority here.  You can bet this won't show up in the media hardly at all.  Except for good ol' Fox News.

Looks to me like everyone in the Forest Service was doing what they were supposed to and the fire "blew up"--that is to say it got out of hand before quick.  Once it blew up there was no pilot who could've (disobeyed orders and) saved the men.  It was a case where an ounce of prevention would've been worth a pound of cure and maybe four men's lives.  But that prevention was too little too late.  (Pardon the cliches.)

Did I mention that I'm a forestry student whose father is a fire fighter?

(Edited by gmcblu at 9:10 pm on Aug. 1, 2001)