Message to the thieves

On Monday, forest fire crews returned to find their headquarters was the target of thieves — again. The following is a message for the thieves who sunk so low.

I hope you are reading this, nursing that well-earned beer, smiling at this week’s conquest. Now here is something to wipe that smile off your faces.

Do you know whom you stole from? Do you know what they do? Did the signs by the building and on the road give you any clue? Pioneer Hot Shots isn’t a baseball team, nor is the Gannett Glacier Crew a group of mountain climbers.

They are some of Alaska’s bravest. They are firefighters who go out and combat the most dangerous kind of fire we know of and fear — wildfire. These men and women go out armed with basic gear like picks and shovels, sometimes working with mechanized crews with water tankers and such to combat an element morphed into a violent and deadly primal force of nature gone very, very bad. This is an enemy lethal beyond all compare; make no doubt about that. It is hard — brutally hard — and dangerous work, just as combat is in a war zone.

The crew that discovered its gear stolen had just returned from fighting fires in the Fairbanks area. They are Alaskans fighting for Alaskans, a crew of 20. The other 20 are down in the Lower 48 in Utah fighting fires and saving lives in some of the worst wildfires in U.S. history. They risk all, and yet you had the gall to steal their gear, trucks and chainsaws? Oh, you had some help, I’ll bet dimes to dollars on that.

So now that I got your attention, there’s just one question: was it really worth it? All that “work” earned you one thing — the utter contempt of every decent person in the Valley.

But there is a solution that may even help you in the end. Take all that stolen gear and load up those trucks and turn yourselves and the stuff you stole in to the police. Do the right thing.

Because if this thievery continues, I fear those hot shots might pack up and go. I fear that when the flames and all the shear destruction that comes with a wildfire arrive in our community, there will be a shortage of firefighters to battle the blaze. We all stand to lose a great deal if that sad day arrives.

I have said my piece. I leave it up to you, the thieves. The decision is yours. Make it the right one this time.

Wasilla resident Daniel D. Grota retired from the U.S. Army after more than 21 years of service.