Letter to the Editor:

Well, we are about to relocate. We are about to move to Prairie City. As the old saying goes, “It ain’t our druthers.” It is a forced move brought on by the Canyon Creek Complex Fire, a fire that didn’t have to happen. I have developed a goodly bit of bitterness in that regard over the past few weeks.

For several years, I have screamed for the forest service to put the fire out instead of setting around while it burned itself out. A good example was the Berry Creek lightning strike. One or two more helicopter bucket drops of water or retardant, even dirt for that matter, and my house as well as several others up Canyon Creek might well still be here, just one or two bucket drops.

But that didn’t happen. I was told that a couple of ground crews were on the scene and they had a trail around the fire and were letting it burn out. Well, it burned out alright. The unexpected jumped up and the wind took care of the rest. Just think, a bucket or two more of water prior to that and our houses might still be here. I know, it is too late for our houses, but maybe someone else in some other incident might benefit. Put the fire out!

I hope that in the future a lesson was learned in this disaster. Put the fire out. Maybe somebody else’s house can be saved. Just one or two buckets more and maybe we could have avoided the heartache that we didn’t deserve.

Dean Elliott

Canyon City