Fire Lookout - Oops

I was daydreaming about spending a summer working at a National Forest fire lookout, which many years ago had been a half-baked plan of mine, and as I cruised the web I came across a story about the Needles Tower Lookout, in the Sequoia National Forest in California, which burned in 2011. According to an article in the Porterville Recorder,

"The fire that burned down the 74-year-old Needles Fire Lookout Tower was caused by an ember that escaped from the tower’s chimney... According to the report, the female tower attendant, a U.S. Forest Service employee, had a fire going in the wood-burning fireplace when an ember escaped from the chimney and landed on the tower’s wood-shingle roof, catching the roof on fire. The tower occupant tried unsuccessfully to use a fire extinguisher to extinguish the flames.

Built in 1937-38 by the Civilian Conservation Corps, Needles Lookout, which was situated atop one of the Needles’ pinnacles at 8,245 feet elevation, was located on the Western Divide Ranger District in the Sequoia National Forest. The tower did not have a fire-retardant roof, Alonzo said.

A USFS helicopter dropped several buckets of water on the roof of the tower when it was ablaze, but the extinguishment efforts were unsuccessful. Four other fires were started by the tower’s burning debris that rolled down from the rock on which it was built. Those fires were each less than an acre in size. Fire crews eventually put out the fires."

The tower appears to have had a really spectacular view.

I'm reminded of my month-long fly-fishing trip in the summer of 2003, across the west, from Seattle, to Bozeman, to the Yellowstone area, to Colorado, to Utah, to Idaho. Oh yeah, and then back home. It was a summer of wild fires. I holed up every night in a cheap AAA-approved motel, which was apparently the same guide used by the US Forest Service. I met many young firefighters who spent most of their time in the motel's laundry rooms. I never had a wildfire-fighting desire, but that summer I certainly developed respect for those who had. Especially as I had been reading the works of Norman Maclean.

Thanks for the memory, John. And the lunch and scuttle. Which works wonderfully, by the way.

That is very unfortunate.
That view is quite spectacular and I had originally thought that the look-out was a small Buddhist monastery.

I'm reminded of my month-long fly-fishing trip in the summer of 2003, across the west, from Seattle, to Bozeman, to the Yellowstone area, to Colorado, to Utah, to Idaho. Oh yeah, and then back home. It was a summer of wild fires. I holed up every night in a cheap AAA-approved motel, which was apparently the same guide used by the US Forest Service. I met many young firefighters who spent most of their time in the motel's laundry rooms. I never had a wildfire-fighting desire, but that summer I certainly developed respect for those who had. Especially as I had been reading the works of Norman Maclean.

Thanks for the memory, John. And the lunch and scuttle. Which works wonderfully, by the way.

My pleasure, Scott. I read Maclean in the evenings of a great flyfishing trip on the Bighorn. All of my fishing in the Sequoia area was with salmon eggs and Velveeta as a kid.

That is very unfortunate.
That view is quite spectacular and I had originally thought that the look-out was a small Buddhist monastery.

It reminded me of one too, Celestino. I think my days of dreaming about living in a fire lookout date to when I was reading books by the old road Zen master Jack Kerouac.

I'm reminded of my month-long fly-fishing trip in the summer of 2003, across the west, from Seattle, to Bozeman, to the Yellowstone area, to Colorado, to Utah, to Idaho. Oh yeah, and then back home. It was a summer of wild fires. I holed up every night in a cheap AAA-approved motel, which was apparently the same guide used by the US Forest Service. I met many young firefighters who spent most of their time in the motel's laundry rooms. I never had a wildfire-fighting desire, but that summer I certainly developed respect for those who had. Especially as I had been reading the works of Norman Maclean.

Thanks for the memory, John. And the lunch and scuttle. Which works wonderfully, by the way.

My pleasure, Scott. I read Maclean in the evenings of a great flyfishing trip on the Bighorn. All of my fishing in the Sequoia area was with salmon eggs and Velveeta as a kid.

We in Colorado were not as sophisticated. We used the salmon eggs, usually attached to a Mepps spinner, but didn't know the Velveeta trick. I would have caught a lot more fish, I'm sure, had I known...

I've tried to match the Velveeta hatch but never found the right fly.

Was the fire "tower" rebuilt?

I've tried to match the Velveeta hatch but never found the right fly.

Was the fire "tower" rebuilt?

I don't believe a rebuild has been accomplished, although apparently there have been fundraising efforts.  Here is an image from October 2016.

Wow, that is quite ironic.

I've tried to match the Velveeta hatch but never found the right fly.

Was the fire "tower" rebuilt?

I don't believe a rebuild has been accomplished, although apparently there have been fundraising efforts.  Here is an image from October 2016.

They had the forethought to use concrete piers   Too bad, its not like the knowledge that cedar shakes are a serious fire hazard is a recent development.  

While we're on the subject of fires, I helped a friend haul some stuff to the local landfill last winter (the curse of owning a pickup) and saw this. It was cold so maybe the operator brought a bootleg heater into the cab. Who knows, but thats a pretty expensive piece of garbage right there.