Breaking news that the town of Milden is currently on fire. Winds are high today – it reportedly started about 2 hours ago – they’ve already lost the fire station and three businesses. I’m going to head out there to see if I can get any photos.
update
I arrived after the fire was well under control. Half of the west side of their main street has burned to the ground, as well as an old shed that was a couple of blocks away, evidently ignited by burning embers. They lost the fire station, a hardware/lumber store, the doctor’s office and a carwash. It could have been much, much worse. Winds are heavy today, from 50 – 70km per hour. That they managed to protect the east side of the business section, as well as the hotel and cafe next door, was very fortunate – no doubt aided by the wide main streets typical of small prairie towns. The town is well treed, with many older frame homes. Had the fire jumped the street, it’s likely it would have moved rapidly and swept through the houses on the east side of town. There was also a service station, complete with above ground tanks, potentially in its path.
Lots of activity, the fire departments of several towns on the scene, as well as a good number from the local Hutterite community. SaskPower and SaskTel were also there to tend to power and telephone issues.
I met the CTV News van on the drive home.
Unfortunately my digital camera crapped out, so I’ve only a few photos for the moment. I did have the 35mm though, and when I’ve gotten those developed in a day or two, I’ll scan and post them. (Likewise, if anyone knows of someone in the area with photos from earlier in the day, they’re welcome to send them to me via email, and I”ll host them.)
Click on the photos for larger versions:
Be careful.
Photos? Talk about opportunism.
What about helping instead?
Generally people help with fires by staying out of the way of the firefighters…
Yeah, not nuzzlin’ in to get a better photo.
Noel would you say the same thing if it was a TV crew??
I’m waiting for a few pics to upload before updating.
I arrived after the fire was under control, but I have news for you – Mildon i’s in a remote area, and the phones were down. Had the fire jumped the street, they may have required every hand available to move what possessions they could from homes in its path. So, while I went to take photos, I had no idea until I was on the road and heard a news update what I’d find. I have a pickup truck and just like everyone else who drove in from miles around, it would have been available if required.
So, just go screw yourselves.
Hey noel, just visited your blog. Funny, looks like you are the only one who read its as there are NO replies to ANY of your posts. Figures!!
You appear to not have anything good to say anywhere.
Horny Toad
For the record, Kate, I wasn’t criticizing you for taking pictures. I was just saying that people generally don’t help, in response to what Noel M said.
Yeesh.
Hey Noel “if you knew Kate like we know Kate”
Your clarification is duly noted, “Gloom” – thanks.
Gee whiz. Whassamatta with Noel? He wasn’t there. Doesn’t know what was going on when Kate was there. Jumps the gun and dumps his load on Kate, who was just doing what she could, and got a photographic record for the people. The fire was under control, so what else was there Kate could do?
And, Kate, I can assure you that Noel most likely DID screw himself. All that obvious pent-up frustration… he just hadda relieve it…
No offense, Noel, just giving ya yer due fer yer little brainfart…
Good reporting, Kate.
I googled “Fire in Milden” and found this
http://www.pin.ca/sask/02-0805/contact.htm
“If I had a million shekels …”.
That’s exactly what the countryside looks like out there.
For those of you who were sidelined by an injury when your team took that class on common grace, it was mentioned in class that in the case of a story like this, it is considered approprite for the first commenters to formalize their hope that nobody was hurt. For example: I hope nobody was hurt.
It’s a sad, sad day when your fire hall burns down.
Tony makes a good point. However, there were no reports of any casualties. Given that, I believe we were all relieved, and were able to move on, albeit not all that gracefully, I guess. All kinds of unfortunate happenings can do wierd things to anyone.
Note, Stephen, that I’m not claiming sainthood on the matter, rather, I find that jumping into the trees before acknowledging the forest is a mistake I tend to make more often than I’d like. I’m just trying to share my growing understanding of this matter while still being dialectical, rhetorical, and witty.
Shaken, for example, makes a deeply emotive point without even having to resort to borborygmic logophilia like I do. Thanks, Shaken.
PS: Since the dictionary cites the use of “borborygmic” as obscure, I should explain that my “borborygmic logophilia” neologism means: a love of words and word-play characterized by intestinal rumbling caused by moving gas.
Tony Nolastname defined an obscure word:
“…intestinal rumbling caused by moving gas.”
I get that sometimes. Quite audible in a quiet room. Have gotten wierd looks as a result. Must’ve been too much protein powder plus plenty of creatine monohydrate, both common bodybuilding supplements. Should use them carefully according to what you’re gonna be doing later!
BTW, Tony, I gotta admit a lot of that stuff goes right over my head.
Sorry about that Stephen, I appreciate that my rhetorical shtick is not necessarily trivial to parse. Nevertheless, “Digging out a skunk is a dirty, smelly business. No one wants to be near you when you’re done — but someone’s got to do it.”
Kate : Did you get out to any of the forest fires south of Fort McMurray in the last few years?
Talk about cutting of a towns lifeline. No nitrogen trucks, groceries, beer, all held up.
Anyway gotta get ready for Lac La Biche Pow-Wow this weekend. No, not working there this year. Taking this one off…so far. Planning which festivities to attend, which one to pass on (very few).
Parade, Waterbombers, Legion BBQ, Triathlon, Fish Derby, Jigging, Fiddleing, Homemade Jam, Traditional Native Dancing (MUST SEE!) Desperado Sailboat Race, Fireworks etc.
All together now:
“BO-O-O-OR-borygmus, where the wind comes sweepin cross the plains…”
Borborygmi is considered normal, Stephen, at least for people who don’t suffer from certain diseases, conditions, or bodybuilding supplements. It is internal, and tends to be a low-frequency rumbling; it is, ebt, not windy. Even when I’m trying to be self-depricating, I try not to insult myself.
I suspect, ebt, that there’s probably some other word that covers the windy flow state, that I’m not familiar with since it’s foreign to my shtick. Perhaps you could look it up for us.
Tony asked:
“suspect, ebt, that there’s probably some other word that covers the windy flow state, that I’m not familiar with since it’s foreign to my shtick. Perhaps you could look it up for us.”
Um, Tony, could be the word you’re looking for is “fart”? 🙂
Anyway, now I know what to call that non-windy version. Fancy name, though. I hoped it’d be a funny word…
I’m going to interrupt this thread for station identification.
While it’s good that the comments threads here are so lively, this is not your own private chat room. Stay on topic or I’m going to start getting heavy handed.
Apologies, K. You’re absolutely right. We were being stupid, naughty little boys instead of grown men. Our bad. For me, it won’t happen again. Thanks for the kick in the butt- I obviously hadn’t had enough coffee at that time-just after 5 am my time.
Aye aye, captain. Course correction noted; gyros adjusted. Thanks for keeping us off the shoals.
I have no idea how I found your site, I think I was looking for Saskatoon berries. Anyway, I’m from Saskatchewan and I think I know where Milden is. Reminds me of when Glaslyn’s (my hometown) sawmill caught fire several years ago.
My husband was a reporter so he would have done the same thing with the camera. Great shots.
Hey, I think the pictures are wonderful. My Boyfriend was one of the firefighters that help put out the fire, and he was glad that there was other people there taking pictures,b/c there are alot of people who would love to see them. He also said that he is just glad that nobody was hurt and that nobody got in the way. anyway, I think you did and excellent job at taking pictures!!