Sorcha, is 'Mr.' a ham radio guy?

When I was active in amateur radio and living in the Silly-cone
Valley, I got called out on fire duty, as comm shadow to the CDF
incident commander. Very interesting duty; hams were the bridge
between incompatible and/or non-functional radio systems. We had
the only stuff that would work everywhere, all the time, between
teams from different jurisdictions.

Got REAL close to some serious fire (actually, a flare-up
crossed a road we were going down). The pictures don't do it
justice, nor the courage of the people who get out in the
middle of that stuff. It's real big and real hot.