Firefighters, you did great. California’s Lockheed Fire, which extended over more than 12 square miles,  is 100% contained.  It took the labor of thousands of you to battle back the blaze before it spread to homes, injured people, and destroyed farms. Although outbuildings and some seasonal cabins burned, nobody lost a home.

I was nearly in tears when I saw small trucks from tiny fire districts as far away as Ebbetts Pass and Murphys, which had come to join our local and state firefighters. I heard the big planes pass overhead bearing retardant to drop on the blaze. I watched the fire perimeters grow and stabilize on a private company’s fire viewer based on data from federal satellites operated by NASA and the Department of the Interior.

I was nearly in tears days later from the smoke drifting into our neighborhood. How much tougher it must have been for all of you who fought it yard by yard, road by road, tree by tree.

And nobody, as you doused nearly 8,000 burning acres at the Lockheed Fire, called you socialists. They called you heroes.

Yet you are the public option.

You did not ask any resident for a means test before dropping water or fire retardant, picking up a shovel, or lighting a backfire. Without you, our neighbors-and possibly ourselves next time-might be injured, homeless, deprived of a livelihood. We are grateful.

Now let’s think a little more about health care. We need a public option there, too. Guaranteeing health is also a big job. We know how to do it. And it’s about time.

We are living in some smoke today, but safe. The big Santa Cruz County wildfire you have probably seen on the news remains  miles off and over the ridge.  I know, because I can see it on the Internet.

I found this  link to a satellite  fire map via Twitter (posted under #lockheedfire).

http://wv.enplan.com/

The map, produced by an environmental planning company, shows the fire perimeters. Each of  the little flame icons marks a place where heat has been detected by satellites.

Thankfully, we are way to the east. With a bit of scrolling around, you might even see our house—but it’s way far off the screen with the fire.  Amazing technology.

During last year’s fire season, I had to scramble for fire information,  often searching the comments to news updates on the local paper’s website.  I still do that, but I also follow the fire on a handheld, using WIFI and the Twitter postings of our neighbors closer to the scene.

Thus I can tell friends and family with certainty that the fire is a long way off.  It’s about time!

Secondly, he thanked the firefighters, noting he had “this special sense that I was with them.” Then he went on to thank “all those who are helping making the effort work here—people are working long hours and the citizens of this part of the world really, thank you for it.”

The president then thanked the Boy Scouts for working on his “Healthy Forests” initiative. He added: “Finally, I’d like to let the people out here know that we’re paying attention in Washington, D.C., we care about you, and that we’ll respond as best as we possibly can.”

Coverage of the speech on the The White House website included comments given in Redding by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had appeared with Bush when the president made these comments. In the attribution of governor’s comments by the White House website, the governor’s name was misspelled.

As of July 18, 2008, meanwhile, the area burned in California reached 907,568 acres, according to figures provided by the CAL FIRE (the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection) That’s 1418 square miles burned.

We Californians love firefighters. They save homes and lives. In fact, with the evacuations in Paradise and the recent fire threats to coastal cities and hamlets, we would like to see more of them here.

California’s National Guard reports an additional 200 of the state’s guard members have just finished training to fight fires on the ground. This brings the total number of California National Guard members called up for actual direct fire-fighting duty to 400. The figure does not include support people, according to the California National Guard’s public affairs office. Altogether some 1,300 California guards are involved in either fighting the fires or in support functions, according to the guard’s public affairs office. By contrast, there are 131 California National Guard troops currently in Iraq. A total of 1500 California National Guard troops are on “federal active duty” either overseas–including Iraq–or elsewhere outside California, according to the guard’s public affairs office.

These are not enormous numbers. They are dwarfed by the 19,706 personnel currently fighting the wildfires in the state. They are dwarfed by the sizes of the impacted areas. The website of the California Department of Forestry—CAL FIRE– reports 230,372 acres as having burned within its jurisdiction since June 20, and that 13,067 residences are threatened. When fires on Federal lands within California are counted in, the total of burned acres since June 20 rises to 702,394, CAL FIRE reported July 10 on its website.

That’s over 1,000 square miles! Maybe we need some help.

“More than 2,500 National Guardsmen continue the fight to save lives, rescue victims, and ease the suffering of those affected by the wildfire devastation in southern California,” the California National Guard last year reported in a press release dated October 26. The 2007 press release added: “More than 14,000 CNG personnel are available to the Governor if he requests additional CNG presence.”

Don’t hesitate, Governor. It’s time to pick up the phone.