Firefighters Chase All Over Looking for a Reported Fire Near Panther Gap; Turns Out It Was an Uncovered Greenhouse

Glow from a greenhouse in Panther Gap lights up a cloud on the horizon.

The glow from a greenhouse in Panther Gap lights up a cloud on the horizon in April of this year. [Photo by J. Bradley Burns]

Just another Humboldt night…Beginning a little after 10 p.m., volunteer firefighters combed the hills between Wilder Ridge and Panther Gap searching over an hour for a wildfire which someone reported burning.

No worries though, it is not an actual fire but, according to scanner traffic, the glow came from an uncovered greenhouse… .

Question: How much money do you think is spent trying to locate wildfires that turn out to be uncovered greenhouses?

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Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago

Too much.

Aunt Jackie
Guest
Aunt Jackie
6 years ago

My guess is: not nearly as much as the cost of electricity to light that greenhouse.

Sean O'evil
Guest
Sean O'evil
6 years ago
Reply to  Aunt Jackie

You mean you have to pay the sun God’s for alternative energy? Most growers have been leading the way in moving towards alternative energy, and have done a lot of great things for the environment. What about the logging companies??

Joe
Guest
Joe
6 years ago

! Well good thing the land owner doesn’t have to worry about getting busted…. for some reason petrolia, and honeydew have a free pass every year. The cops seem really scared of panther gap, rpg shooting down a helicopter works I guess.

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  Joe

Ive been looking for info on the internet about the camp helicopter that was shot down in the early eighties. I cant find anything. Can anyone help

Liz
Guest
Liz
6 years ago
Reply to  Guest

Never heard of that happening.

Scooter
Guest
Scooter
6 years ago
Reply to  Guest

Never happened!

Buzzards nest
Guest
Buzzards nest
6 years ago
Reply to  Scooter

Its a farse. They dont go to panther gap because thats the origin of the bulgarions. They settled there in the late 80s. And has been a hot spot ever since! Its pretty evident that the HSO is paid off by them unless the feds told em its a waste of there time because they have a case on them…….meanwhile billions of dollars have been made by that “extended” family of eastern europeons. Smart they are, leaving us “locals” scratching our heads for the past 20+ years!

Festus Haggen
Guest
Festus Haggen
6 years ago
Reply to  Buzzards nest

What is a bulgarion? I don’t think that’s even a word.

Buzzards nest
Guest
Buzzards nest
6 years ago
Reply to  Festus Haggen

Your right. My bad i told kym i would keep it PC. ” Eastern Europeon Americans of Slavic heritage”

Hillbilly
Guest
Hillbilly
6 years ago
Reply to  Buzzards nest

^^That’s the truth^^^^

Just My Opinion
Guest
Just My Opinion
6 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

Dang girl, your on top of it.

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

Thank you very much Kym! You’re awesome!!

Buzzards nest
Guest
Buzzards nest
6 years ago
Reply to  Guest

👍🏼

Seamus
Guest
Seamus
6 years ago
Reply to  Guest

There was a case where a camp copter had to be left in the field overnight with armed guards. I’ve heard rumors that they reported gun shots in the hills around them.

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  Seamus

Thank you.

Michael
Guest
Michael
6 years ago
Reply to  Guest

One was shot at and people tried to set it on fire nice while on to The ground at Hoopa airport, only minor damage was done. The urban myth built from that incident. In the mid eighties…

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  Michael

Thank you.

PeggySax
Guest
PeggySax
6 years ago
Reply to  Guest

They say , “It looked like a snake .”

Member choppers
Guest
Member choppers
6 years ago
Reply to  Joe

Wasn’t shot down. They had two truck loads of peops unload on it over it in hoopa. They park choppers in Redding now. Just what I heard in 89.

Dan Fuller
Guest
Dan Fuller
6 years ago

Definitely a waste of time & resources!!!

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  Dan Fuller

For who? The firefighters were doing their job. We should be grateful. More of a waste for the property owner who hired idiots too lazy or stupid to cover that shit when the lights came on. C’mon guys, you make us all look bad.

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  Guest

Agreed! Thankful the fire fighter on so proactive.

Dan Fuller
Guest
Dan Fuller
6 years ago
Reply to  Guest

Agreed, I didn’t mean the firefighters were a waste of time!!! I meant that chasing their asses to find some moron’s greenhouse uncovered was a waste of time etc!!! I have nothing but respect for firefighters period!!!

Vol fire fighter
Guest
Vol fire fighter
6 years ago
Reply to  Guest

Some of us fire fighters are vollunteers. So that whole Job thing,, not happening. We spend our oun $ on gas& leave our Families to look for these. Third one I know of in hdew area. One was an active structure fire, engines went to two green lights before we found it on the ground. Please put a wrapper on it people.

Truthy
Guest
6 years ago

Light pollution, from a “permitted” grow, is a reportable offense. And, some people are reporting them.

Anon Forrest
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  Truthy

Glad to hear it.
I drove up to a friend’s house one dark night, and when I crossed over the first ridge, it looked like space ships had landed! Glowing orbs on almost every “40.”
It must have been back in the early days of light-dep, as my neighbor reported later that their area had gotten a grip on the wasted fuels/amps and also considered the wildlife. So they went to full Sun, with fewer plants, with greater (and better) yields.
Thank goodness folks can learn.

G-MAS
Guest
G-MAS
6 years ago

If someone reported a fire,it must be looked for. Because if it was a fire and no one looked for it,would have been a nasty fire.THANK YOU TO ALL FIREFIGHTERS

Bonnie Cook
Guest
Bonnie Cook
6 years ago

I remember years ago as the lookout at Pratt Mtn. sending the crew from Thorn looking for an orange glow. They never could locate. (way before night time grows.) Turned out someone put in a large orange yard light. From 10 miles out at night it was flickering like a snag on fire. A neighbor called in early the nest morning about it. Got marked down on the map for future reference. Crews were up most of the night looking for it. Maybe you could let the fire depts know ahead of time where these are located for reference so they do not have to waste their time, or the bozo’s could have a scanner and listen to where the crews are going and maybe a lightbulb will go off in there heads and they can call off the crews who may have already been out on a fire and are now losing precious sleep time for the next fire real or not.

ET is landing!
Guest
ET is landing!
6 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

Not too many years ago…. whenever HSU had a night time football game there was a shaft of light shooting up into the sky, like there was “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” happening amongst the trees in the local forest. While this was nifty to look at, like the Luxor light shaft in Las Vegas, we all knew it was a waste of power, and was obviously putting out massive amounts of star-blocking light pollution.
So they redesigned the lights. Better light reflectors, with better aim, reduced the light pollution drastically. Plus, because the light was being used better, it took a lot less power to light up the stadium. If I’m remembering the signage about it correctly, a savings of 15% just from the re-aiming and reflecting.
Nowadays, I can’t tell if there is a night game or not, it was done so well.
These folks need to pay attention to this idea: that less light is needed if it’s actually aimed at where you want it to go. A little bit better reflector could fix this problem. Using smaller lights, better aimed, could save costs, and even hassle from the neighbours. Here’s hoping…..

Vol fire fighter
Guest
Vol fire fighter
6 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

Should see if grasshopper can give us a panoramic.

Food for thought
Guest
Food for thought
6 years ago

If there is already a glow pic taken in April why would they look for a fire in the same spot?

Brian Anderson
Guest
Brian Anderson
6 years ago

Its not so much the question of how much money is spent chasing calls like this. It runs much deeper than that, but most people don’t understand. As a fire chief, the first concern that I have is the added risk to my firefighters as they respond (often times with the emergency lights and siren). Secondary to heart attacks, responding to emergencies takes many lives of firefighters due to traffic collisions. You would be amazed (or, scared!) at the crazy things other drivers do when they see the emergency lights flashing. We do our best through constant driver training and discussion, however, the uncontrolled variable is other drivers actions. Yet, there is another consideration that is often overlooked. In Humboldt County, 90% of the firefighting services is provided by volunteers. Women and men that devote thousands of hours annually to their communities training, maintaining equipment, fund raising and responding to calls … all for FREE. Each hour they donate to their community is an hour spent away from family. Dinners missed, birthday or anniversaries interrupted are very common in the volunteer world. Each and everyone of us stands ready, willing and able to put our lives on hold for our communities emergency needs. So, the question is … how long does it take to cover your grow to prevent needless false alarms? Isn’t it worth preventing the loss of a firefighter?

Brian
Guest
Brian
6 years ago
Reply to  Brian Anderson

Thanks for your comment, I hope people listen.

I think it will take severe enforcement and education (in hmong, russian, Spanish and english) by local groups and government..

Hello
Guest
Hello
6 years ago
Reply to  Brian Anderson

They. (The cops). Should bust people for this reason alone. Thank you to all the volunteers. [edit]

Buzzards nest
Guest
Buzzards nest
6 years ago
Reply to  Brian Anderson

Yes Brian. You are on cue. Simple solution. All these greenhouses are deps with black out plastic to pull over. Pull your black out plastic for those few extra hours at night…..or just be lazy,rude,and ignorant

Vol fire fighter
Guest
Vol fire fighter
6 years ago
Reply to  Brian Anderson

HEAR HEAR!

Drews
Guest
Drews
6 years ago

Its just not that big a deal…no harm, no foul…they searched for an hour and figured it out..chill..

Drews
Guest
Drews
6 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

Ask me how I feel about you always smearing everyone around on here.

Hello
Guest
Hello
6 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

Why did you edit me

jj
Guest
jj
6 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

Hey Kym, your blog is helpful to me, and I appreciate what you do. I just don’t know how in the hell you can deal with some of the comments people make….Thank you for keeping folks informed about power outages, road closures, fires, fund raising events, births and deaths in the community, extra thanks and a big hug for posting information about lost dogs, and so much more that I’m not recalling right now. Your blog IS important to the community, what the trolls spew out, isn’t.

Hello
Guest
Hello
6 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

Why did you edit me now. Really

Vol fire fighter
Guest
Vol fire fighter
6 years ago
Reply to  Drews

Yeah, “they” /”we”. Sit on couch/ shut up.

Ben Round
Guest
Ben Round
6 years ago

There needs to be a BIG PUSH in the community, from many angles (radio, TV, community meetings, flyers, rewards systems, via independent schools, etc) to EDUCATE PEOPLE ABOUT THEIR RESPONSIBILITY TO COVER THEIR GREEN/HOOPHOUSES to prevent the many effects of inappropriate light pollution. Period.

Shawn ee
Guest
Shawn ee
6 years ago

And in the 80s keep your pollen to your self,now there all clowns…inside joke there…but my father flew with camp then and I never heard of any of them shot down.

Kyle Keegan
Guest
Kyle Keegan
6 years ago

And then there’s the issue of there truly being a fire and people hesitating to call because they believe that it probably is an uncovered green house. As we all know, a prompt response to a fire can mean the difference between homes and lives lost and the fire being extinguished.

I was at a party two weeks ago when all of a sudden people were yelling “fire” and pointing out what looked like a large fire across the valley. Panic was in the air. But in fact it was multiple uncovered illuminated greenhouses. The fog was coming up and over the ridge and causing it to look just like a spreading wildfire.

Simple solutions at hand for fixing this problem.

We need to spread the word like wildfire, ” If you’re gonna light-it-up, cover-it up!”

Vol fire fighter
Guest
Vol fire fighter
6 years ago
Reply to  Kyle Keegan

With you there! They don’t have a prob covering when a harvest is at stake.

Save the Trees
Guest
Save the Trees
6 years ago

OMG! Stupid, stupid, stupid waste of resources!

Neurocks
Guest
Neurocks
6 years ago

Ahhhh, the Gap. Special place – 5 years out there with the big boys will change ya.

The [edit] Lower, the river, upper… the phone spot. The nightly sounding off of gunfire, somebody always had to let off a full auto mag to one up the next property. [edit] The Cadillac graveyard and all the abandoned shit out there. Black bears on the porch. Choppers and UFO’s. I even miss the road.

Vol fire fighter
Guest
Vol fire fighter
6 years ago
Reply to  Neurocks

Come on back anytime. Or wait two years, the property will be worth less. Maybe ya can get a 40 for 100k. That’s only 300#s.

Veterans friend
Guest
Veterans friend
6 years ago

STREET LIGHTS ARE INFINITELY WORSE

jj
Guest
jj
6 years ago

Pffft. Nice try, man.

Jack Straw
Guest
Jack Straw
6 years ago

They should have cut it down. People remember stuff like that and won’t do it again!

John Ripper
Guest
John Ripper
6 years ago

The country is Bulgaria. An inhabitant of Bulgaria is a Bulgar. More than one inhabitant of Bulgaria is Bulgars. I`m pretty sure “Bulgarian” is incorrect.

Pakistan is a country. An inhabitant of Pakistan is a Pak, and so on.

John Ripper
Guest
John Ripper
6 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

A cursory consultation of Webster`s New Collegiate dictionary gives the definition of Bulgar as “Bulgarian”. Apparently both forms are correct.

Encyclopedia Britannica (1964ed) has “The treaties of Bucharest (1913) and Neuilly had lefty large numbers of Bulgars under foreign rule”

Brian Glacken
Guest
3 years ago

I left the gap in the 80s.the people who lived there were greedy and trump like
They would make you pull in a 1000 pound harvest.then make excuses to not pay you
I know some are still there
I doubt they pay anyone what they contract. Wasting Volunteers lives to fight for their crop is a disgrace.they should all be ashamed.good men fight fires so they can make Netflix movies. Nuff said
All firefighters should be compensated for the horror they’ve been through. Humbolt expatriate