I flipped from station to station this week, mesmerized by images of flames rolling over the San Gabriel Mountains and by the sound of newspeople making like war correspondents. They talked about the inexorable "march" of fire across the mountains, the "counterattack" by fire crews. But especially, they seemed fixated on the "air assault."
A reporter on KTTV-TV Channel 11 demanded to know Tuesday morning why no water or retardant was being dumped on a Glendale hillside. A KCAL-TV Channel 9 anchor (and at least one of my colleagues) joined many other newspeople in wondering why the sparkling Canadian import, the Super Scooper, hadn't been thrown into the fire fight.
Owners of threatened homes, politicians and newspeople love nothing more than the sight of a giant plane banking over the foothills and dumping a giant load of water or bright red retardant. Everyone seemed quite smitten with the airplanes. Everyone, that is, except the professional firefighters.
"Just one tool in the toolbox," the men in uniform kept repeating, though it didn't seem many of the newspeople heard them. They just kept asking, in particular, about that erstwhile glitter girl of the fire squadron, the Super Scooper.
To be fair, some of the newspeople asked because their viewers (who had seen shots of the bright yellow airplanes seemingly moored to the tarmac at Van Nuys Airport) wanted to know.
Still, can't we take a break from all this flaming militancy?
Not one fire expert I talked to called for more aircraft, all instead stressing the importance of the weather and the ground crews that carve those unglamorous fire breaks, often miles removed from the telegenic air drops.
This week's coverage reminds me of the skewed perspective we get at the start of a Middle Eastern war. The airwaves brim with breathless video-fueled accounts of laser-guided bombs walloping a faceless enemy. We don't see so much of soldiers slogging it out on the ground or the ugly aftermath of combat.
In fires, we get lots and lots of footage of air drops.
On Monday, it was KCAL anchor Mia Lee carrying water (pun apology) for the Super Scooper, the bright yellow propeller plane brought south most fire seasons under a contract with Canadian authorities.
A state fire official had just finished explaining on Lee's Channel 9 that helicopters could make more precise water drops and that the Super Scoopers might merely wash away retardant laid down by earlier airplanes. That didn't stop the KCAL anchor from wondering when the planes would take to the air.
