Farmers became heroes in wildfire

I want to write to you to hopefully be allowed to show recognition and appreciation to the farmers who saved our homes in the Four Lakes area, specifically around Medifor, Taylor and Medical Lake Four Lakes Roads.

If it was not for these 16 men and their water trucks and disks, our homes out here would not be standing today.

I don’t know all of these men, but I really would like to share with you the men I do know who put their lives in danger to save our properties in the area: Chris Fitzner, his dad, Lucky Fitzner, and Dave Dobbins are just a few.

In this small community, we are very fortunate to have these guys as neighbors. We will never be able to thank them enough nor repay them for what they did on that horrible Friday.

They hosed down fences and sheds, and put out embers before they could consume buildings. They went into a house to put out a fire in my neighbor’s home, where flying embers burned an extremely large hole in their kitchen floor.

I heard about my neighbor telling a reporter that as he tried to extinguish flames inside his home with a garden hose, he asked God to for help to save his home, then saw Dobbins and his friends pull into the driveway with water trucks.

These men are not firefighters, they are farmers. That fact never stopped them.

They are truly heroes.

Sandy Brantley

Four Lakes