Updated: Video: Wildfire Prevention PSA - ATV Pulled from Airwaves
July 30th, 2008 | Published in DVD & Video | 3 Comments
UPDATE: July 30, 20008 - The Forest Service has pulled the Smokey The Bear Ad featuring an ATV after being cited as unfair to ATV riders. As pointed out below, spark arresters on the vehicles would prevent the ATV itself from causing a fire.
Forest Service officials said the ad was not intended to imply that all ATV use causes fires _ rather that fire prevention is always important, especially at a time of high fire danger. (The Huffington Post)
See the updated news article @ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20080729/off-road-forests-smokey/
-John
July 23rd, 2008at 9:39 am(#)
This Public Service announcement is mis-leading and has a hidden, anti-OHV agenda. ATV’s DO NOT start fires. Spark arrestors are mandatory on all ATV’s and Dirt bikes, and have been for many years. This is total mis-information and it smears the OHV community. This video needs to be removed from this website ASAP.
July 23rd, 2008at 10:10 am(#)
This piece of propaganda has no place on a professional site for Life Safety Experts… it taints your professionalism by association when you hitch your horse to such a misled wagon.
OHV volunteers actively maintain forest trails which are so vital to emergency response, law enforcement, and fire control, and posting this agenda-driven PSA is a step back to the life safety profession, in general. Please fact-check this propaganda to see for yourself how incredibly rare it is that OHVs start fires… and consider brush-trucks, and how equally rare it is for fire apparatus to cause a fire. When you think about the extreme rarity and the similarities between OHV and emergency apparatus (sometimes one and the same!), you’ll pull this video down ASAP.
July 23rd, 2008at 11:00 am(#)
@Kurt & @Randy - Gentlemen, I can understand your concern and passion for the OHV community as well as welcome your response to the PSA. You bring up some good points. Please understand that there is no hitching of any horses here to any wagons. At no point was there any argument supporting or dissenting on the video. It was posted because the PSA is out there and as such, it will be a subject that life safety professionals will have to deal with regardless of whether or not there is an anti-OHV agenda attached to it.
Imagine if you will a parent about to purchase a 4×4 coming to the firehouse to ask about the what they saw in the PSA. If the educator never saw the video, how could they give a balanced and informed reply? They would have never had the opportunity to research it. I for one never base my recommendations on a single PSA, but I would like to know what is out there so that I can be prepared to respond. That is why I welcome your responses as a counter-point to the video.
Because of that, I am not going to pull the video down because the intention of its posting is to generate discussion on the subject. Thank you for your input and happy riding.