More on private fire-fighting in the rural West

The New York Times ran a big story a few days ago on various private fire-fighting efforts in California, Oregon and Washington.  I've recently written about this issue here and here, but Ilie Mitaru's piece (he photographed and reported) is really extraordinary, featuring the views and practices of pot farmers, ranchers and a retired fire-fighter who adapts vehicles to be fire-fighting, water-toting machines.  In fact, fire-fighting vehicles play a really important role in this story.  Guess you got to have the equipment if you're going to have any hope of succeeding against these fires.  

A related story of self-reliance in the face of wildfires is here.