Praise firefighters and pray for rain to end Bolt Creek Fire

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, October 19, 2022

To everyone still harping and hollering about why the Bolt Creek Fire is still not out:

Would you like to trudge along the slopes in a sweaty firefighter’s suit, hiking through brush and bramble, all while carrying your heavy gear in the heat and smog? Would you like get in a chopper and fly between steep canyons of rock and burning trees, with enough smoke to make our dense soup of morning fog look like a pleasant mist? Would you be willing to take responsibility if the water — due to gravity and the sheer weight of it — crashed onto smoldering branches and trunks, and sent rolling debris onto someone’s home, someone’s car; or worse, one of the firefighters working on the ground?

Can you do all of this while spending weeks, sometimes months, away from your family and loved ones?

The only thing that’s going to put this fire out is a long, cold rain. Yes, we’re all tired of the smoke and heat. But yelling at our hardworking firefighters and the leadership that guides them is not going to make it better.

Shannon Ozog Somes

Lake Stevens