Federal Firebugs
The federal government has a longstanding history of rolling into local municipalities, usurping authority, generally making a mess of things, and burning bridges in the process. The latest case from Texas takes it to a new level. This from Reuters:
Tom Edwards, the county attorney in rural Motley County east of Lubbock, said on Friday that the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives was responsible on Tuesday for sparking a fire that consumed 150 acres.
“You can quote me on it: That bunch has a real corner on stupid,” Edwards told Reuters.
Tom Crowley, a spokesman with the federal agency, said bureau officials were assisting four local bomb squads — at their request — to destroy some explosives. Firefighters were on hand, he said. The wind picked up, but the explosives were too dangerous to move, so the officials went ahead and destroyed the explosives.
“Unfortunately, a fragment ignited some grass,” Crowley said. “As far as the community, we’re working with them to let them know how to go about making a claim with the government.”
Texas Governor Rick Perry has publicly criticized the Federal Emergency Management Agency for declining the state’s request for a major disaster declaration for wildfires that have scorched some 2.5 million acres since November.
FEMA has said it has awarded fire management grants to Texas but that the agency determined there was not a need for additional support.
“We’ve got the federal government that has refused to provide assistance to the state on the request of Governor Perry because of all our statewide fires, and then in waltzes federal agents and they start a fire,” Edwards said.
Wonderful, though, that the feds are working with the community to let folks “know how to go about making a claim with the government.” Presumably so the same government can ignore said claim and tell the community to go screw.
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