This is all assuming I’m not still in Northwest Indiana….
If I was here in Ft. Myers, then to the left is a signature picture of the big brush fire in Fort Myers, FL between Jamaica Bay & Wal-Mart. Between the two is an east-west linear forest that is split by what used to be a railroad track. Apparently it’s the nesting ground for many of the homeless in the area. Maybe they needed a can of beans warmed. Maybe they fell asleep while smokin’ a square…
The fire started around 7:30pm local time.
If I was here, then I might have been biking on the OldOld Man’s oldold bike and had seen it when it looked like smoke from a burn pile. Another two-mile lap and the brush fire got a little bigger as the sun set. I still didn’t think anything of it…because, you know…I’m not here, but if I was here and when I finished the 12 mile bike and sat down to slurp on a Sierra Mist and realized the clear dark blue and red sundown was overwhelmed by a gray smokey haze, then I would have gotten into the golf cart and jetted off into the meelee before the fire and police arrived to block that section of the park off.
You know, if I was down here in Ft. Myers.
It was burning up the paper trees for a good while. The firemen were wetting down the trees on this side of the trail so as to avoid it from coming into the park. If I was here, I might not have been paying attention and might have gotten a little misted by the truck. Anyway, if I had been here I would have left when I thought the fire was dying down to see of the OldOld man was still playing Bridge. Of course, it would be my luck that by the time I would have gotten back to his place and sat back down I would have heard a loud crack and seen the flames shoot up above the tree line. That would have forced me to act a fool, hop back into the golf cart and cut through the yards to get up close again where I might have taken these photos to my left and perhaps gotten some better video that you just up and to the right of this paragraph.
Of course, if I was here.
Because if I was here, then I would have been nice enough to show the people who weren’t as close to the fire (the smart ones) and shown them the video. Then they would have pointed out that the NBC 2 guy (Paul Gessler) had gotten kicked out by the FD (they were busy in the area at that point) and when he walked by I showed him a couple clips.
That’s when I would have got his card, raced back to the house where, if I was down here, I would had definitely have had my laptop and a wi-fi connection and started uploading.
Just in time to make it into the NBC 2 Southwest Florida News.
You know, before they updated their video player and let this fall by the wayside, never to duplicate. He’s what I submitted.
If I was here then I didn’t get quite the credit for the video..yet, but, hey, that’s why there’s social media and that Google thing. Not that I would have minded, but…
I’d would have wanted a keepsake reminder of the day so then I would have to turn to this poor, neglected site that’s been abandoned while I work on a project. So…all things fair…it might have been a good day. Might have, you know…
For the record, the NBC 2 editor did hit me up with an apology for not giving proper credit. It was cool. Fire moves fast.
If I was in Ft. Myers at the time.
(BTW – if I was here and this was my stuff, then what did y’all think of the videos and pics? Not bad, asumming they were shot with an iPhone 4)
Not a fan of fires. 2008 – Lightning struck my house. Had sprinkler systems, security systems, etc. Alarms went off, police drove bye, and found nothing… thankfully someone from across the river saw flames shooting out from the back of the house. Fire sprinkler never went off. We had to completely rebuild from the inside out. I have experienced the fire, the insurance company, the banks, and the continued mess of it all. God bless all that have to go through the devastation of a fire!