THE DEBATE on the CURTIS FAMILY Protecting their home

Okay OKAY everybody....out of 78 posts to date at the L.A. times...only 4 were anti-Curtis backfiring.

Here's the first ten....Add your own thoughts in the comment section of this particular blog.

1. This incident should be used as a building block to create a program to teach citizens how to defend their property from fire, since firefighters and their resources are not sufficient to help everyone. Enabling people to help themselves is the best strategy, given the inadequate resources in remote locations. Also, what jury of one's peers would convict these guys? That, against the likely prospect of losing it all, was worth the gamble.
Submitted by: brenda
2:54 PM PDT, July 7, 2008
2. Mr. Curtis, ask for a jury trial. There is no way a jury in Monterey County will convict a person of defending what is theirs. Maybe you can write down instructions for others who may need to defend their property from wildfires?
Submitted by: Marianne
2:47 PM PDT, July 7, 2008
3. way to go guys! have never felt safer renting from anyone. the Curtis' know their land, and they proved it. i'm glad those 2 weeks of brush clearing payed off. i needed the rest. can't wait to go home!
Submitted by: denim
2:41 PM PDT, July 7, 2008
4. People would be singing a completely different tune if the fire they started had gotten out of control and burned someone else's property down or even killed someone. It is only property. They didn't do it to save a life. The law is the law and when you break it you must face the consequences.
Submitted by: JW
2:39 PM PDT, July 7, 2008
5. if you are blessed to call it home you would do everything in your power to protect it. Relying on the already strained forest service, who can't even pronounce the names of our ridges, peaks and valleys was and is not an option if you have any intention of preserving your land. Ross shouldn't be vilified or seen as a martyr, all people should care about now is that the curtis family succeeded. If the case even goes to trial, he will take the rap for everyone, or there will be an "I am Spartacus" type circus. Any punishment may or may not be just, but the alternative to obey the evacuation and not fight would have been even more devastating.
Submitted by: Lee
2:13 PM PDT, July 7, 2008
6. in response to ben's comment, all the failure of communication, lack of local knowledge on the part of fire crews and law enforcement, fear mongering (threatening to arrest residents and asking for access to dental records!) and general government ineptitude aside, referring to the curtis' property on apple pie ridge as a "compound" is not loaded language because that IS what it IS. It is MANY homes spread across expansive ridge views with a gorgeous avocado and citrus orchard, grape vines, gardens, a swimming pool and dozens of tenants that are a vital part of the big sur community. If you have ever been there, you know, and
Submitted by: Lee
2:13 PM PDT, July 7, 2008
7. I applaud Mr. Curtis for his heroic acts of bravery. He did the right. Now, could everyone have done this? No. Of course not. Yet, he knew exactly what he was doing, and so I commend him. I would do it, too. Then again, I am a Cal Fire firefighter for 12 seasons.
Submitted by: Support for Mr. Curtis' Back fire
2:11 PM PDT, July 7, 2008
8. If you knew exactly what to do in this type of situation, what would you have done to protect your property when you knew the firefighters weren't coming?
Submitted by: Betty
1:49 PM PDT, July 7, 2008
9. I live in fire country in the NW and I commend these guys. Anyone who thinks it should be left to government "professionals" doesn't have much knowledge of what has happened to wildland firefighting over the last thirty years. We had an incompetent federal fireboss get a group of firefighters killed over east of here and no one was out arresting him. Instead the Forest Service covered up every way they could and they still are.
Submitted by: Karen
1:44 PM PDT, July 7, 2008
10. Hopefully this case will go the way of the people in Sacramento who were punished for letting their lawn die in a drought.... Government which can't do what it is supposed to do, should not be meddling in the lives of those who do what they have to do. Are govt employees the only ones alllowed to use their god-given brains????
Submitted by: penna
1:34 PM PDT, July 7, 2008