Our best goes out to you all in path of this storm. On the networks they show burning houses this morning in New Orleans with a chopper hovering around filming the damage, a little later they showed the same house now becoming engulfed in flames and now the nieghbors house starting to smolder.Could'nt the army air corps or fire brigade send in a chopper to put those few fires out with a bucket of water or chemicals?. Why just let the house burn? How is it that the news station chopper is on hand yet there is no other emergency support? I could not believe my eyes !
to answer your questions, i have a little expierence in emergency situations. right after the storm the first priorty is people and thier well being. first off you are overwellmed with not having the proper resourses and then you have the time frame of getting the proper resourses on scene. secondly if you were up to your neck in water would you want to see someone putting out a fire of saving a person's life. and it is not that simple just to dump water on the fire..lol... as the local emergency is concerned the house is a loss and the house nextdoor as well. the news does not get involved due to the fact that they do not have the capability and they lack the specialized training to do a task like that..any more questions?
rob
Your kidding me right.Did the storm sneak up on them. No the levee broke and that was the greatest problem culminating in all the problems you now see. You painted the scene.Ok, I am the neighbor stuck in my attic with my weak and tired family with water up to our necks ,The house ablaze next door has now set what is left of my house on fire.We have got a 40% chance of not drowning until help comes because the water has slowed down.With our house on fire now what our are chances? I know you are on the fire dept. and I TRULY respect that. I realize that channel 12 news team and laurel Sauer are not gonna save the day.I never implied they had life saving experiance, I do not however understand with all the resources at hand including fire-fighting,trauma hawk,bucket- carrying air power in 2005. That it is the news chopper on the scene first. Why do they have the resources to get around first. I am familier to crises situations chaos and civil uprising people shot, buildings burning curfews,bombings right at my front door. I am just a little pissed at what appears to be a waite and see operation, the confusion. If you see fire put it out if someone is on a roof pick them up.If 1500 people are on a bridge for three days bring them food and water.How ? like they are finally starting to now . And you can bet the Southeast coast of Fl. is still another cluster fu&* up waiting to happen should be a lot of O.T. hangin on t'll the next big blow.
Not to sound sick or twisted, but it's hard to dump water on a house. That "roof" thingy tends to send the water off the side rather than on the flames.
Also, if there COULD be any good side to a situation like that, remember that FIRE damage is a covered peril on your homeowner's policy. FLOOD is NOT (unless you have a flood policy)
Hmmm, so if your house is flooded and you only have a homeowners policy, the best thing to do is to set it on fire? 
My guess is that the insurance company would say it was the water that caused the fire, so you aren't covered. I'm very cynical about insurance.
You didn't hear that from me... 
And it's quite a stretch...
"Gee, I was using candles because the power was out..."
And I agree with your cynicism; best to just get coverage than try to figure out a way around it...