Moving SLV Steve Pic Disbursement

With the large volume of pictures that I now take for all of the responder agencies in Santa Cruz County I am going to do the weekly updates and any important daily incidents at the blog site I have had for years and am now restarting…and off of Facebook…took this picture recently as CALSTAR was transporting a vehicle crash patient out of Zayante…I liked the reference of flying away…

Facebook has some great opportunities for the responder agencies to get information out to the masses and I see that as the best way for my pictures to help with that. Me being the photog anomaly of not shooting for media and not ever being a stringer (the ones that dramatize incidents that try to sell their pics to media or to get followers/likes and have little to no ethics) coupled with my pics getting shared across Facebook groups that have significant moderation issues and anxiety generators – it is clear that I need to keep my pics under better control in the social media world.

For those that truly wish to see the events all of the pictures will still be added to my website daily. Navigation can be challenging at first I know – but I am more than willing to help anyone find what they are looking for if something cannot be found. There are also thousands of hidden pictures that only the respective agencies can see which is left up to them what is shared to the public – but the remaining 114,000+ pics are archived there for all to peruse..https://slv-steve.smugmug.com/Archives-2022.

I will still intermittently put pics on Instagram, and I have helped many inquiring souls with how to use AND understand the radio traffic, apps and sites to properly interpret the emergency response information out there, and I implore anyone that uses particular scanner posting Facebook groups to seek out legitimate help in researching current event information…I will post separately soon the assistance I have given to help others alleviate misinformation anxiety during incidents that these groups create.

The old SLV Steve Facebook page is still archived as no one can access it to turn it off – and I will keep the SLV Steve Vol. 2 Facebook page up for a little while so people can see the switch…thank you again for all of the support Tundra and I get from the communities out there…

A Ride with a K9, a new rig for BLFD, a Garden of Eden drill, and a lost reservoir…

The last few weeks have contained the most voluminous amount of pics I have ever taken with over 20,000 pictures and almost 1,500 published – albeit over 1,000 of those are restricted as they were part of Active Shooter Training. But here we have a few highlights..

SCSO K9 Dries and Deputy Spencer

These two will forever be a part of this life I chose years ago – some of the best work I will ever published contain one or both of these great souls….friends.

Garden of Eden – willingly for once…

So many rescue and medical calls at this once untarnished paradise – but such is life in the Internet world with no more secret local places…Felton Fire along with ZFD and State Parks and Roaring Camp (not shown) all participated in a training to help prepare for the inevitable annual incidents here…

BLFD’s New Engine 2249

Always a fun moment for an SLV fire department when a new rig arrives and this week’s happy group is BLFD and their new type 6 engine. I am sure when this goes in service soon it will see plenty of action in the places it was designed for…

Sempervirens Reservoir in Big Basin

SO many emotions…I saw this place before CZU, after CZU and then today – once one of those beautiful hidden secrets inside our State’s first park…after CZU though it became no more…

Will try to muster up a separate post here regarding my name being voted as best photographer in our SLV here – so as I have slowed social media sharing way down and I am not good at being recognized – I will work on it…remember though everything that is publicly viewable can be found here:

https://slv-steve.smugmug.com/Archives-2022

A Worthy Read Regarding Mental Health in the Fire Service

I added this article in hopes maybe a few people – especially those in or around and/or support their loved ones in the fire service – get a chance to know what faces the ranks in our current era…a widow/partner of a firefighter I had worked with ended his life this year – she reached out to me and had found some pics I had taken of him while in the fire service…hits a spot I cannot describe within me when my pics have been found by widows of this profession thru the years…

https://lookout.co/santacruz/environment/wildfires/story/2022-06-13/overworked-california-firefighters-struggle-with-ptsd-suicide-fatigue-intensifying-wildfires

Week 2 of June 2022

Being as I can share more of my work here without the worry of social media warriors ruining it for everyone – this week will have show some select incidents and community events but also one fire that really is quite angering…

But first – the 2nd Annual Cornhole Event in SV

Last weekend this amazing fundraiser for the San Jose Firefighters Burn Foundation was held here in Scotts Valley – a group that helps burn survivors in various ways that if you get a chance it is very worth your time to look into and help support..

This week held once more the anniversary of our community losing a dedicated and respected public servant in Sgt Gutzwiller….they held a dedication at his newly signed park near Cabrillo…

A graduation finally held in normalcy for our SLV…I shot before the event, briefly during the ceremony and at the famed Grad Night that I attended myself many moons ago and enjoy helping with for more than a few years since…

There was some beautiful fire dancing performed by a lady I have taken pictures of for more than a few years..

And lastly – I was not able to make the actual fire at the Tannery the other night but somehow the art installation that had been a centerpiece there for years burned up…

https://slv-steve.smugmug.com/Archives-2022/SLVUSD-2022/SLVHS-Graduation-2022

Brown Gables Fire & Some Website Tips

Agencies from throughout the county responded in various fashions to help facilitate several mobile homes being impacted by a fire event.

I could see the smoke from a mile away and as I was listening to multiple fire and law channels enroute I was already hearing a plethora of actions being put in motion to mitigate the incident with expediency…

I published over 100 pictures in various responding agency galleries so I will include a few links here to help those wanting to see the work being done – because I know the site can be daunting to learn…

The Ben Lomond FD pics

https://slv-steve.smugmug.com/Archives-2022/Fire-Service-2022/Ben-Lomond-FPD-2022/Brown-Gables-Fire-BLFPD-June-2022/

The BCFD Pics

https://slv-steve.smugmug.com/Archives-2022/Fire-Service-2022/Boulder-Creek-FPD-2022/Brown-Gables-Fire-BCFD-June-2022

The root folder that contains all of the fire agencies in Santa Cruz County

https://slv-steve.smugmug.com/Archives-2022/Fire-Service-2022

So regarding future incidents you can use that last link to look for the incidents that were handled by each group…will do the law enforcement links in a later post…as always reach out to me if you have problems finding galleries…

Fern Fire, North of Boulder Creek May 2022

These difficult to access small fires always create the challenge for me of deciding how much to commit in vehicle wear/tear/damage to get low fire activity shots vs. staying at vantage and access points to get the supplemental work being done…

So I chose to try and find high and low points to get the aircraft orbits and in this case an actual dozer dismount and deployment off Highway 9…

One unique capture I rarely get is fire aircraft and commercial aircraft in the same area…clearly far apart but the tanker’s orbit pattern made for a couple chances yesterday…

Once again during the initial phases of the fire – several local social media pages that are poorly moderated had a plethora of incorrect information, disinformation and outright fiction from a variety of speculative people…relevant information and notifications were done in a timely manner by various responder groups on multiple platforms and fire suppression/containment happened with great effort in short order…The level of anxiety and panic these “411” and private emergency incident information facebook and nextdoor groups create feels so unacceptable to me…

The Hames Rd Crash May 2022

The absolute volume of hard work that went into this extrication proved how vital training is in preparing for the difficulty firefighters may encounter on any given day…

There were upwards of two to three extrication tools operating simultaneously all whilst the sheared off hydrant was inundating the responders…

A few civilian bystanders did their best to try and divert the water during the extrication..

The majority of the pics are in the CALFIRE gallery on the site but there are also unique sharings in the Central and Watsonville fire galleries and CHP also…

All three patients were flown to various trauma centers…

SLV Steve Website

Wanted to refresh anyone that Google cruises through here about how to find the volume of pictures I take and how to access them…this time of year the largest amount of souls come looking for the pics I have taken of them during Halloween and the holidays (and social media gets less than 1% of my pics) so I will keep this brief and hopefully it helps…

Anyone looking for their recent Halloween pics they will be in a variety of places in this folder:

https://slv-steve.smugmug.com/Archives-2021

For anyone looking for the Burlesque pics from this year and others:

https://slv-steve.smugmug.com/Burning-Man-Vibe/Burlesque

If you think you have the time to figure out how the 100K+ pics are stored at the site this gets you started:

https://slv-steve.smugmug.com/browse

As always I make my contact info very public so call or email if you cannot find what you are looking for…steve.scmbulletin@gmail.com and 831-206-3044…

Thank you for all of the support – it is so appreciated….

And if you are wondering what happened on facebook please search for SLV Steve Vol. 2 to keep getting the pics shared there as the prior feeds were locked out from me…

An Amazing Author Includes One of My CZU Pics in Her New Book…

https://lookout.co/santacruz/environment/story/2021-09-17/untold-story-of-the-original-effort-to-preserve-big-basin-shared-in-new-book

Was blessed to be included in her journey to tell the story of Big Basin like no one before her…a couple of my pics from her book release event at the Chaminade this month….

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A Recent Trigger from my time at KAIA in Jeddah KSA

I just recently saw this crash was shown on FlightChannel…it has been in the top listed crashes in history of lives-lost – but never really talked about like Tenerife, Riyadh and others.

I worked at King Abdulaziz International Airport as a fire captain a year after the crash and had the opportunity to talk to the battalion chief and other ranking fire staff that were there that day. I spent countless hours studying in the airport library about this crash and so many others, sometimes sifting thru records that would never be released outside of the KSA. I tried to go to the crash site within the boundaries of the airport but armed military and other security would approach me and tell me to leave – I was not arrested as my fire uniform gave me that exit – but I was actually just trying to pay respects to that pilot for what I heard he tried to do in saving his ship and everyone on it.

There are other factors not talked about in the video that directly affect the outcome that our fire department could have acted upon and prevented – but decades later I honestly feel nothing comes of that within the Saudi culture…you can actually see the wording I am talking about within the “landing gear being retracted” – which was totally preventable via the runway fire stations. Seeing the computer graphics of the airport I worked and lived at was challenging to not pick apart – but seeing the Hajj Terminal (at the time the largest open air terminal in the world) attempted was slightly cool…and I always remember the runway ID as it is my favorite number throughout my life so yes – some of the buildings were off and geography misplaced in the background but I loved seeing this video over three decades after the incident…I would pause the video many times to see the recreation of Jeddah – which was definitely off but I loved looking at a city and airport that holds so much meaning to my fire service career…from what I learned about regarding this crash that pilot and crew tried some heroic measures but were defeated by the aircraft and missed external cues/human error listed in the video.

The cockpit was still embedded in the reclaimed-coralbed when I was there – full removal of the crash site was never done by the time I was there (1993). Canadian flight crews and one American flight company (Evergreen) were the only western agencies allowed to fly into Saudi Arabia at that time (exception of Air Force 2 and other US government ships) so my interest was peaked in learning about a crash most people had never heard about at that time. If you look at the top 15 aviation accidents in history – this flight is one of the only ones not involving terrorism, mid-air collision or being shot down with this volume of life lost. Being the photographer that I am – even back then in the film days – I tried to get a picture of the site but I was always getting in trouble and being removed by security instead. That pilot managed to get his ship back onto airport grounds – and was almost to the runway (which ATC had given him clearance to use any of our 3 runways he wished to try and survive)…but to no avail.

To William Allan’s family – I hope words of praise for his efforts reach you in some way…