BAaloney! You're out of your freakin mind! Trying to link the President
to forrest fires.

edo wrote:
> http://www.oregonlive.com/search/ind...?oregonian?lcg
>
> Forest fires' timing sets tongues wagging
>
> 08/27/03
> MICHAEL MILSTEIN
>
> An emerging whodunit in Central Oregon hovers amid the smoke draping the
> east side of the Cascade Range.
>
> Can it be pure coincidence, locals are asking, that two wildfires sprang
> up in view of the spot where President Bush planned to promote his plan
> to thin forests for wildfire prevention?
>
> And that they both appeared just as his plans emerged?
>
> "I think everyone in the community here is wondering that," said Judy
> Wattier, who works at the KOA Campground just east of Sisters, where
> business is in the doldrums because of the blazes that have covered
> almost 40,000 acres in the nearby Deschutes National Forest. "Everyone
> I've mentioned it to can talk about it for hours."
>
> There are whispered conspiracy theories, even rumors of mysterious black
> helicopters clattering over the forest shortly before the fires were
> spotted the afternoon of Aug. 19, two days before the president's visit.
>
> But perhaps folks can be forgiven for that, because there really were
> black helicopters clattering over the forest.
>
> "Typically the Secret Service does all kinds of aerial surveillance
> before the president comes in," said Don Ferguson, an information
> officer for what have become known as the B&B complex fires. "They
> pretty much know the location of every tree."
>
> The president had planned to speak in Camp Sherman, but the fires forced
> the evacuation of the small resort town about the time he would arrive.
> He flew over the blazes in Marine One and spoke in Redmond instead.
>
> U.S. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth, Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski and
> White House press officers fended off questions from reporters at the
> speech about the curious timing of the fires. "It would be inappropriate
> for us to speculate about that," presidential spokesman Ken Lisaius said.
>
> Ferguson said he's taken several calls from area residents saying they
> think the fires appear suspicious.
>
> This much is known: No lightning that might have sparked fires had
> struck the area for at least 11 days before the twin blazes were
> sighted, according to the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center in
> Portland. The Central Oregon Dispatch Center in Prineville first
> suggested lightning had hit a few days before, but meteorologists
> checked records and dispelled that.
>
> Trees or debris ignited by lightning may smolder for a few days before
> blooming into a blaze. But 11 days is an awfully long time to wait.
>
> "It is unusual, but not unprecedented," Ferguson said. A
> lightning-caused fire near Ashland sputtered for 10 days before taking
> off earlier this year, he said.
>
> The coincidences multiply considering the two fires erupted about 10
> miles apart at almost the same time, although winds that whipped through
> the region might explain that. The Booth fire started near Round Lake, a
> camping spot next to the Mount Jefferson Wilderness, while the Bear
> Butte fire began in the wilderness, away from roads.
>
> The Central Oregon Arson Task Force will investigate the blazes, but
> flames have kept officers from beginning their inquiry.
>
> Lightning starts about 15 percent of wildfires, according to the
> National Interagency Fire Center.
>
> People start the rest.
>