This is the downbeat on ninety seven to one, The Freak. The return
of Billboard Bayless nine o'clock. We'll have to do Billboard Baylists on either the
last day or the first day of the month, and it's going to be
the last day of the month this time, on this leap day to twenty
nine. Billboard Bayless returns at three o'clock. Yep. We're going to look
at the hits of today compared with the hits in Luca's birth year nineteen ninety
nine, Luca's birth year. We're going to see how these songs compare and
contrast. What if Luca was born on the twenty ninth, he'd really be
Don't they say that you can't have you can't put February twenty ninth on a
birth certificate. They say that I've heard that, and someone texts that in
like your berertificate, driver's license, don't say February twenty ninth, it says,
leaves that to be true because the parents choose either Mark twenty eighth or
February twenty eighth or March first. That's bs oh, and there's all sext
Jordan and find out yeah, yeah, she's up taking care of her.
Oh and she's been up off and on all night long. But there,
I mean, Luca could have I mean, there's so we know he's a
magic boy. And what if everybody actually born in the twenty ninth had a
little just a five percent of magic. You just have to figure out what
discipline it goes to. You know, humans don't figure it out because you're
just never exposed to that. But Lucas was magic for basketball. That's all
real for basketball. Gosh, maybe everyone has one little piece of magic in
him, just the odds that you figure out what it is. I know
what mine is. I don't know. Could be this stuff you gotta think
about. Kevo I think about all the time, as I can't stop thinking
about it. Is how I spend my days. Things Morning news at eight
thirty. He's gonna have tons of stuff for us, always do because he
always does. But coming up right now, we have a collar on the
line here. This is Shelby, formerly a Fortworth order short where you're hanging
out at now, Shelby. I've known Shelby for a few years now,
but he has experience in the area of where these Texas wildfires are. Yeah,
these catastrophic wildfires in the Texas Panhandle and now Oklahoma have tried more than
one million acres and they have this thing siphoned off in a one, two,
three, four, five different fires as that's what they're calling it.
They all have cool names. The Smokehouse Creek fire is the big one,
eight hundred and fifty thousand acres in Texas, thirty one thousand over thirty one
thousand in Oklahoma, and they say that's three percent contained. And then the
Windy Deuce Fire, the Grapevine Creek Fire, the Magenta Fire, and the
six eight seven Reamer Fire. They're all in the same family of fire.
Containment numbers are strange. Amount of acreage burned is strange. We talked a
lot about it yesterday, but as with most things we do, we are
merely speculating. So now KT has acquired us someone who's had two but one
had to drop out because he got called into work the seven am hour because
it's the life they live. But we're joined now by Shelby on the free
cutline. Good morning, Shelby, how are you all good? Hi Shelby,
what do we call you? Officer Shelby or now just regular Shelby regular.
Okay, well, thank you regular Shelby for jumping on with us.
Yeah. Are you out of the fire game now, Yes, I am,
But currently I did work up in the Panhandle the city called Border,
which is actually where this all around this where it started and the smokehouse Creek
fire started. Yeah, they're dealing with they're right now, they're going through
it. So just for our listeners context, where were you stationed when you
were in your normal full time work the city of Border? Oh you were
there. I thought you just the one for the Lake Lake Meredith National Bark
as well with them as well. All right, did you deal obvious?
I mean I could, I could whip you with just regular ask of fireman
questions, but obviously we're focused on this uh massive fire that is that is
torching the Panhandle in parts of Oklahoma. Did what I guess percentage of your
year or career is dealt with wire wildfires versus day to day uh fireman activity.
Yeah, so it's basically two different deals. You know with firefighters.
You know, we deal with a lot of different fires. You have your
house fires, your car fires, your uh your wildfires. How do you
fight all those different fires? Are a lot of different ways, you know.
With with the house, obviously, it's it's there, it's gonna stay
there. It's it it. Uh, you're gonna go fight it and put
it out. With with wildfires, it's it's a whole nother ballgame. It's
you can throw as many resources as you want at it, and it's at
its staged now. I think last night I read up it was at over
a million acres. Now there's I think the second largest fire in Texas history.
You can throw a lot of these resources, however many resources you want
at these things this point, it's up to mother nature. You can try
to get ahead of it and make a fire line and uh take away it's
fuel to where it doesn't it doesn't potentially jump that that fire line. But
the thing with these things is is the Panhandle. What they're dealing with is
uh strong, strong winds. It's the Panhandle, very windy, rolling hills,
dry, you know, that's uh, that's what they're dealing with.
These things are moving, you know, way faster than anybody can get ahead
of and so you know they're they can't do anything really with you know,
you know, aircraft everything. You know, it's just taking off on them
them. So, yeah, that's a little bit about how what you can
do. What what what are the strategies involved when you are called to a
wildfire situation? Maybe in order you mentioned fighting them from air, you mentioned
a fire line. It seems to me like the most important thing, or
the most difficult thing, would be getting water to those remote locations, because
it's not like you've got fire hydrants just out on these plane for an unlimited
resource. You've got to bring that stuff to the fire What what are what
strategies are employed, what methodologies are employed to to try to contain these things,
and kind of maybe explain what you mean by by fire line. It's
a broad question, but kind of give us so there's a lot of different
ways you can fight these things. Like I said, by air, you
have fire crews that will come out and dig line. Basically, what we're
doing and when we create a fire line is we're getting down to the surface
below the grass to dirt, and we want to create a dirt line,
uh so where whenever the fire comes to it, it has nothing else to
burn. Crazy enough, is it sounds you actually fight fire with fire in
wildfires? You said you can't get much water. Uh. These people,
you know, helicopters and planes, they'll they'll go to lakes and you know,
pick up water where they can. But yes, it's crazy as it
sounds. You're actually sometimes uh starting a fire to backburn what we call backburning.
Uh. Basically when we do that is we're burning the grass to backfill
into taking away uh, that fire's potential fuel, because that's when you can
actually contain, right, that's when you can actually contain and control, whereas
the wildfire is just this uncontrollable thing. You you burned down a strip to
stop it from having fuel, right, Yes, sir. And it's kind
of funny. You know, I've been on fire's wildfire's particular up in the
pandemic, and people will call the coughs on us because they think that we're
actually starting a fire and helping it. But you know we're we're we're actually
doing our job, you know, taking away it's fuel. But yes,
they you know, we have you know, flares that we throw in,
drip torches that drip out fire. You know, all sorts of stuff we're
pouring out. Bulldozers will bring out you know, scrapers, stuff like that.
So Shelby. This is Shelby who was a former He's fought in wildfires
before, has experience in that same area up in the Panhandle where the smoke
House Creek fire is now the largest fire in the United States history. Yeah,
that's been confirmed in the last couple of hours of see people report that
the second biggest and I mean the largest in Texas history, the second largest
wildfire in US history. Cheese because of it, and I believe they as
of last night, actually this morning, I'm getting reports that it is snowing
up there. Okay, So that's that's what I was gonna ask you,
because you were just talking about fighting fire with fire. It's like they're getting
some precipitation some I ain't a winter mix because it's gets cold up there too.
It's this new front came in an Amarillo at least is getting I don't
know if it's gonna be enough though, and that like northeastern part of the
Texas Panhandle there before you get into Oklahoma. But I know that Amarillo Era
is about to get doused with some rain, and that helps, I would
imagine, right obviously, Yes, yeah, that it definitely helps their cause.
You know, but these guys. Yeah, they're they're out there.
You know. I'm sure some of those guys are are working at least that
minimum twenty twenty three hour shifts, maybe even more, just just staying out
there. So, yeah, they're going to be cold and today. But
hopefully it helps them out. It certainly doesn't, you know it it'll it'll
help them out hopefully. So with that also, we I'm just telling this
in that this guy confirmed by a news station thirty minutes ago as an eighty
three year old woman. Yeah, that more confirmed death and they think over
five hundred thousand cattle. Probably there's people doubts on stories if someone lost their
house of thirty eight years. I mean, it is really a big deal.
The fact that's the largest wildfire in US history. Now, now,
I guess say that's possible because you are out there in that area where there
ain't much and it's so expansive too. Yeah, yeah, yes, sir.
And actually with with the City of Border when I hired on with them,
you know, it was a big part to be with the wildfires.
You know, that was a big, big part because it's such a huge
part in that area for wildfires. We have a program to where we went
around the city and did prescribe burns, you know, to do mitigation to
prevent this sort of thing. This is why Borger is you know, it's
not having the same disaster as these other cities is because you know, we
keep we kept it maintained to where it wouldn't get out of control. The
biggest thing is is uh, you know, people not having ladder fuels around
their house, keeping your grass shure, you know, all these little things
can help. Not having a lot of clutter, not having a lot of
you know, consumables that that can catch because like I said, once it,
once it goes, we can try to protect the house. But you
know these flames, you know, once once it's come at you, you
know you can see you know, fifteen to twenty foot flames coming at you
and can't see nothing. And it gets real real quick. And this is
like I said before, these fires with the wood driven, they can move
so quick and it can turn it can turn crazy real quick. This is
Shelby who's got experience fighting wildfires now in that area too. How do they
investigate where this started? When the grounds all torched, you know, looking
for a cause? How do you know how to investigators even get a start
on you know, when it's time to come to that. I have a
little bit of knowledge of that. That is more so with you know,
fire investigators. They come out and they do their their deal. They will
find the investigation. This could happen a lot of different ways. It could
happen from a person throwing a cigarette out of a call window. It could
happen from a chain, from a dragging the roadway. That's all it takes
is something like that. And firework, whatever, dry lightning strike, you
know, all sorts of stuff. It's obviously it's too early to tell,
well, you know, what happened with this, but uh yeah, I'm
sure they'll get out and do their investigation and figure out what what cause was
me This is fascinating. Shelby, thanks for joining us and giving us some
answers. We're just obviously guessing. I think I have a two part question
because I asked is yesterday and maybe a dumb guy question. But we're talking
over a million acres right now, and the report yesterday said every minute it's
burning one hundred and fifty football fields per minute. Is that what it was?
Yes? One hundred and Like I can't even think of what that looks
like in the speed of which that's moving. Is there any scenario where if
the weather doesn't help you, no rain, there's just no recourse. I
mean, right now they said there's this three percent contained. I mean,
if you don't get enough firemen to converge on this, is there any scenario
where something burns a third of the state half of Oklahoma it just never stops.
I know that's sort of dramatic and feels like a movie, but this
seems like the one thing that if nothing stops it, it's never going to
stop. Yeah, like I said earlier, you can throw as many resources
as you want with it, but unless mother nature helps you out, all
you're going to be doing is is pretty much chasing it. You know,
with what you just said, you know it's moving half or a football field
a minute. You know you can't get in front of that, and you
know going and chasing it is dangerous. You know, how we do this
is very organized in in in dells, uh divisions all that, and everybody's
trying to coordinate together. You know, where to go, what to do?
Where where do we think that you know this this wind's gonna take us.
Is it going to give us a northwest wind? Is it gonna change
here in an hour and give us the southwest wind? You know, with
wildfire, wildfire fighting, you you do a lot of weather classes with it
because you're constantly, every every hour, every couple of hours, you're checking
the weather and you're you're going, okay, these are my conditions. Uh,
you know, my relative humanity, my wind direction. All this plays
a vital rule in in this, in this getting it contained. So yeah,
I was curious about how frantic the organization process was. Who's in charge
when calls are coming out to anyone to help? Do you know would there
be d f W firemen on their way up? There? Are we too
far? He yes, Sarah, yes, yes. What your state as
is a oh I can't remember task force? And so the governor will deploy
uh you know firefighters. I've been deployed personally to other states. Uh.
I've been to California, you know, even in Oklahoma, Nevada. You
know, they will declare a state of emergency, and you know, we
we can possibly even potentially see other you know, firefighters from other states coming
in to help with this. So you're gonna have to have, you know,
changes with personnel. You're gonna have to have, you know, something
like I said, these guys are probably you know, doing easily twenty twenty
three, twenty four, you know or more our shifts, you know,
just constantly just going out there doing my ups doing, you know, because
that's the last thing you want is an inber being picked up and being sent
down the road and starting another one. You know, these embers and the
right conditions, with the right wind, could could take an ember miles and
miles away and put it and put it in another start another fire. So
I think that's the reason why we had it such a big on the smokehouse
fire. It is probably from that situation. Fascinating. Hopefully they get some
fascinating precipitation up there. Shelby, thanks for taking the time this morning and
kind of filling us in on this stuff that we you don't know nothing about
because we don't you know, do that. So thanks man. Yeah,
well, thank you for having me call in. I appreciate it. All
right, let's go get some beer sometime. Take care, Shelby, Yes,
sir, we'll see you. Thanks for having me. Thanks regular Shelby
Bright five years let's go. That's awesome. Yeah, Oh that's a smart
and incredibly interesting get man. I could have beat him down for a long
time with that, because it's still I don't have all that much clarity,
and just the madness of frantically driving six hours straight toward this thing, and
where are we going and how are we going to help and not get in
front of each other, and then the danger he and those firefighters put themselves
in. It's something moving so fast, so how do you stay safe yet
fight? It feels like a video game, like just imagining on a map
where you would go to try to put out and it's like, no,
it's real life. It's taking people's houses and unfortunately, you know, woman's
life, people and a lot of land. I think your question too about
how that could go, like the specific uh specifties of where this was,
where it was going in the northeast into Oklahoma, where as we know,
I mean, the middle of America is pretty vulnerable right there too. One
of you brought up to the aspect of what this can do to the agriculture
situation up there in the future, because you don't we don't know how many
cattle have been lost. You don't know how much land has just been destroyed.
You know that maybe our nation depends on for cotton. I think there's
a lot of cotton out there that you could see. Who knows a rise
in the cost of garments in the next year or two, who knows,
But it's a it's a domino effect on that stuff. But you're right,
we could have had him on for two hours, dude, because look that
we had him on because it's specific to big, huge news. The biggest
story in Texas is happening right now. We want an expert to speak to
it. But don't you want to know, Hey, what's going on in
that fire station? Right And what do you guys doing all day? Have
you ever worked a I think they're on like two days on, three days
off or something like that, something like that. There will have to be
one hundred percent available for a twenty four hour stretch and they get two off.
Have you ever worked a shift where you literally had the phone didn't ring?
You know, are you guys really cooking all of your own meals?
Like I have a million questions for firefighters. I'm kind of obsessed and you
men of softball in this country, firefighters alone a softball. Yeah, those
guns and hoses games aren't going to play themselves. And Dalmatians. You don't
see any dalmatians anymore, right, good stuff for the time. Stuff Danny,
what's up the death of a comedic legend? And why did this Jimmy
John's employee throw his customers sandwich in the trash