Re: "Where there's smoke, there's fire," page 25, July 2 Gazette.
The author seems to assume that the recent wildfires in Alberta were started by natural causes. It’s certainly possible, but it did seem a bit early in the season for thunderstorms. What if these fires were deliberately started? Who would do such a thing? I could think of a few possibilities.
At the top of the list would be radical environmentalists. They haven’t hesitated to vandalize and damage existing pipelines and oil and gas installations; with a few forest fires burning they can say "We told you so." Second on the list would be radical Islamists. They haven’t hesitated to kill unarmed soldiers or mow down civilians with a vehicle -- starting a forest fire would be child's play for them. The Communist Chinese government has made some serious threats to Canada since the Huawei affair, and with Justin Trudeau’s open door immigration policy thousands of undocumented Chinese have entered the country, any of whom could start fires.
Our forests have been targeted before. During the Second World War Japan launched over 9,000 incendiary balloons that were carried by the prevailing winds to the West Coast of North America designed to start forest fires. Very few did, however. Many fell in the Pacific Ocean, some were shot down, but some people in Oregon found one and not knowing what it was picked it up. The resulting explosion killed five children and their Sunday school teacher.
Barry Brace,
Crossfield
