NH government wants to take away our fire towers and use satellites??

[JenniJ375]

Check out this article...I dont think taking away our fire towers and using satellites instead is such a good thing...we have volunteers that man our tower becuse they love thier job....what do you guys think??

http://www.thewmurchannel.com/news/2775239/detail.html

[NJFFSA16]

The committee said the state could save $4 million if the towers were closed.

I'd like to know how they arrived at that figure. If the towers are staffed by volunteers, the labor cost savings would be zero. Annual maintenance costs couldn't possibly total $4 million....so these figures must be a bit skewed. How many towers are in question here?

Personally, I believe fire lookouts provide the best/cheapest means of detection. Relying on satelite technology will undoubtedly cause delays in response times, larger fires at I/A and costlier fire bills in the long run.

It's a political game being played. Florida did away with staffing lookouts...just after a disastrous fire season in 1998. When history repeats itself.....perhaps they will reconsider the value of those lookouts.

[JenniJ375]

Also...I am not sure how reliable satellites are really. When there is heavy cloud cover, sats will not be able to detect a fire in the making. I agree with you NJ...I have no idea how they come up with the figure of 4 million dollars. I think that it is just another ploy to spend our tax dollars.

[ffexpCP]

4 million bucks, eh? Remind me again how much it costs to design, build, and launch a satellite?

[BurnCMSFD]

Greetings, I have been up in a couple of the towers this was 5 years ago or so and they were in need of some major repairs, but they are really cool and when you get in one you feel like your stepping back in time, all the old maps are there. A friend of mine was working for the park service and he would go up and look out of them once in awhile but as far as I know up in Northern NH there wasn't any volunteers just sitting in them looking out, maybe in high fire danger. I think they are a part of history and should be repaired and we know NH has money from how high the taxes are there :), look what happen to the Ski Jump in NH, they let it rot and now it is a hazard. I am originally from that area, and wish they would refurb them and use them.
Burn

[JenniJ375]

The fire tower we have here in the town i live in in NH...we use to have volunteers to man it...but according to my chief....they people that man the towers now make about 8 $$ per hour....but still...the reapirs that need to be done to the towers plus the pay for the people that man the towers do not even come close to 4 million $$...I do not think that the government is seeing the whole picture here...im thinking it is just another way for them to get more tax money