Takes a special neighbour to risk their lives to protect ours.
Cypress County is mourning the death of James Hargrave, a firefighter who died battling wildfires near the southeastern Alberta hamlet of Hilda. RCMP said the victim was a volunteer firefighter who died while operating a water truck aiding efforts to stop the fire’s spread to Saskatchewan.
h/t, Ken (Kulak).
What a shame. RIP
As a retired F/F, one thing you have to remember when driving these tankers.
Speed (no matter how fast you need to get there) is so dangerous. These trucks just don’t handle worth a dang!.
I actually shed a tear for this fine young man, unlike PM Sock’s crocodile tears for that songwriter guy.
The phrase “unsung hero” comes to mind. A guy who would literally get out of bed to help for
no gain or fame. Thank You.
Terrible.
All in the service of others.
Unfortunately our Downie inflicted PM would rather shed tears for a second rate band leader,than a real Canadian hero. RIP my friend.
Should read…. Downie syndrome
“Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and make perpetual Light to shine upon him.”
Sad, tragic, and UNfair … that the GOOD so often die young. I pray for his family. May they find peace, courage, and strength in the coming days and years.
I live out here.
I didn’t know Hargrave personally but he is typical of the kind of people who live in a remote ag community. Everybody is involved in an emergency because nobody is coming to help – except your neighbours – who might live miles from you. Evferyone lives in fear of smoke on the horizon.
Tuesday was an unbelievable day. Winds at 100kph. Fires were breaking out everywhere. Towns all around had mandatory evacuation orders on both sides of the border. My neighbour lost 100 head of cattle, I know people who lost their house, winters supply of feed, corrals, fences equipment etc. Most of these losses are uninsured.
Leader SK is still without power and will be for another day or two (estimated) as many power poles snapped in the wind (or burned) and sparks from broken power lines set the grass ablaze.
Ranchers are out shooting their cattle that are badly injured by fire/smoke.
I had an old-timer neighbor (long now deceased) who surprised me one day after I had just moved-in to my new (old) home and showed-up with a rake and a shovel to help me load debris into a waiting truck. I told him his gesture was was not necessary … and he told me, without hesitating (still remember his words to this day) … “that when a neighbors cow is in a ditch, everyone helps”. My “cow” was experiencing no such crisis … but I graciously accepted his help and we remained closest friends till the day he died.
He grew up on a farm … in rural America … and didn’t lose those life-lessons even when he moved to suburbia. Now, (most of) my neighbors never look up from their touch screens to help each other’s illegals illegal Central American gardeners bag the yard debris. Just a reminder that I need to get OUT of HERE.
Very typical of ‘Small-towners’ assisting their neighbors, even those neighbors that may be miles away or in another province! Us city dwellers hardly know those across the street let alone on another block. Would we assist someone we don’t know? I would like to think so but after viewing the video of the attack on a police officer near a football game in Edmonton recently, I wonder…
Rest in peace, James!
“…PM Sock’s crocodile tears for that songwriter guy.”
It may be worse than you think. Perhaps his emotion was genunine.