Just an update for those who still have any interest in last week's incident..
I returned home yesterday and am going through the event today... my hope is by tonight or tomorrow to have a write-up on my website detailing the incident, namely the lack of roadblock and of course the run-in with the fire fighter further up the road.
In addition, I plan to personally reach out to the Volunteer Fire Department privately on the matter before pursuing anything further. I have been advised by a variety of professional and other council that actions need to be address by the department, and right now, I feel it is in my best interest to work directly with them to move forward on the process. However if they continue to see this without fault on their own, then it may result in this being pursued to further levels. Aside from small nit-icky items, I have been told by a number of reliable and official sources that they do not have any grounds to come at me for legal actions, and have a list of reasons in my favor that support that. As of now, nothing has been brought against me.
This incident does provide ample proof as to the importance of running some form of video. I feel that what I captured of that event clears me of any wrong-doing, and hopefully will lead to departments such as this reviewing their policies on situations such as this.
As for the communities who have been relentless against me since the incident, I sadly agree that regardless of the proof shown in my defense, I will forever be viewed in the wrong. While I in NO way excuse the actions of the department, I do feel as if the few bad apples of chasing combined with the department's inability to properly manage that situation lead to what I experienced. The reputation of storm chasing by those few bad apples gives these departments the ammunition to profile any storm chaser, and I happened to catch the fire of this one. While I am not perfect, and think anyone saying that is acting on a cop-out, because that is NOT the issue; there are countless examples of recklessness, needlessly aggressive behavior, lack of respect toward communities and those affected by storms, and other chaser-related issues that when combined with the overwhelming numbers of people on these rural roads leads to issues just like this. I paid the price for a lot of behavior that I am not responsible for, and have been found guilty by association. While I respect everyone's freedom to do what they want, this does bring about the other side of the coin that we as a community of our own need to get our shit together. We have had more than enough wake-up calls over the last few years and it's time we do a better job of representing ourselves.
So next time you do something stupid, and you get called out for it and decide to use the excuse "I'm not hurting anyone but myself", ask me about those two nights in my hotel room in breakdowns over the relentless amount of hatred that flooded every manner of communication for the better part of 48 hours. And remember what I did NOT do on that day to deserve to take that punishment.
And of course, nothing what I went through even holds a candle to the already-occurred worst case scenario that occurred back in April. No one ever needs to go through that again.
This is a two-sided story folks, and both sides need to address issues. Everyone needs to step up and start being accountable, cause I will be damned if I ever go through this again for someone else.
