wildfires | 06880

Tag Archives: wildfires

Pics Of The Day #2242

Posted on June 7, 2023 | Comments Off

As smoke from Canadian wildfires drifted south, much of the East Coast was enveloped in an acrid haze.

After-school activities, sports games and practices, even the Democratic Town Committee’s al fresco get-together at Walrus Alley were canceled.

Most Westporters stayed indoors. Some ventured out, to take photos for “06880.” Here are a few:

No swimming at Compo Beach … (Photo/Charlie Scott)

… or playing on the cannons … (Photo/Larry Silver)

Canal Road, on Saugatuck Shores (Photo/Gene Borio)

A different-looking sun (Photo/Gene Borio)

From a Post Road West office (Photo/Mikayla Doyle)

Saugatuck River (Photo/Amy Schneider)

Staples High School’s Jinny Parker Field (Photo/Dave Briggs)

Greenwood Lane, off Sturges Commons (Photo/Mary-Lou Weisman)

Hazy sun, over Home Goods … (Photo/Andrew Colabella)

… and through the trees … (Photo/Becky Keeler)

… and the sun’s close-up (Photo/Meredith Holod)

View from one drone … (Photo/Sam Saperstein)

… and at Ned Dimes Marina, another. (Charlie Scott)

Comments Off on Pics Of The Day #2242

Posted in Beach, Pic of the Day, Staples HS, Weather

Tagged wildfires

Firing Up Westport Volunteers

Posted on September 1, 2016 | 7 comments

If you’re like many Connecticut residents, when you hear of wildfires in the West you think, “What a shame.”

Then — if you’re like me — you move on to news of the next catastrophe.

Michael Kronick and Robert Yost are doing more. Much more.

Robert Yost

The pair — members of the Westport Fire Department — are actually fighting those fires.

They’re part of a 20-member Connecticut crew that’s battling the Black Fire in Idaho.

This is Yost’s 1st volunteer effort. Kronick, meanwhile, has served in the Western US several times, most recently last year in Northern California.

And that’s the key: It’s all volunteer. Westport’s firefighters are using their own vacation and time off to help save land and homes — and risking their own lives to do so.

Alert “06880” reader Steve Axthelm think that’s crazy.

“These 2 men are very courageous and generous,” he says.

“But don’t you think we as a town and community ought to sponsor them — at least in part — so they don’t have to use vacation or personal time to help out there? Wouldn’t it be a fair and appropriate contribution to the needs of our fellow Americans?”