Idiotic Responses

There is that about some elements of human nature that seems to bring out the worst in us. Our fascination with the macabre, the destructive powers of nature, of catastrophic accidents. People succumb to the allure of wanting to witness these events, going out of their way to visit the scenes of disaster. Even, for some, celebrating those disasters. As though their occurrence would be a suitable occasion for partying, for whooping it up.

We'd like to think that these are people with a lack of conscience, a group of individuals who lack perspective, humility and empathy for others. But it isn't necessarily so. They're often just 'folks' bored and looking for some distractions. They can be social perverts in the sense that in preparation for embarking on a journey to witness disaster people will drink themselves half insensible.

And that appears to be what police in Kelowna, B.C. are themselves witnessing.

The RCMP have set up road blocks, installed for the purpose of stopping event-seekers from driving into the still-dangerous evacuation zones where wildfires have been burning out of control around the Kelowna area. Despite the road blocks and the presence of RCMP officers, there are those determined enough not to miss out on anything that they've simply bulled their way across the barricades.

"Motorists are failing to stop for police", Corporal Moskaluk informed reporters. He has also indicated that some of those drivers who have been stopped by police just outside the barricades were clearly under the influence of alcohol. It is just so unreasonably unfair that the police are stationed there for the explicit purpose of stopping good-time fellas from having a blast.

Forest service officials and firefighters are desperately placing their own lives at risk in their rigorous and dangerous attempts to stifle the fires with a minimum of damage to persons and properties in the path of the fires. Thousands of home-owners have been evacuated, and anxiously await word of the success (or failure) of fire-fighting efforts. Hoping to return to their homes, and hoping that everything they own will not have been destroyed.

It has been speculated that human carelessness - if not deliberate arson - has been responsible for the fires. The extreme drought conditions in the area are incredibly receptive to either carelessness or determined efforts of pyromaniacs. One might think a disaster of this nature, of this all-encompassing proportion would sober people, bring out their better, more restrained instincts.

Instead, talk-radio programs have issued what has been termed 'idiot alerts': for men and woman cruising along the edges of the fire zones, ogling the proceedings. Lit cigarettes in careless hands as people smoke, windows down to ensure their indoor air is not contaminated, then flicking the ashes and the butts out the windows.