when the trade towers went down i was working on a fire
which was thousands of acres at that time...and we were
immediately without any of our usual air support...water
drops, medical helicopters, spotter planes, due to FAA
orders for all planes to land or be shot down. I believe
there was a large fire in Oregon at the time as well, the
Biscuit fire if i recall, "ours" was the POE fire.

we had some fire fighters in a steep canyon with medical
conditions requiring evacuation to hospital..broken ankle,
etc. and were building a bull dozer line 8 blades wide to
prevent the fire jumping to a peninsula of land containing
a ranch. We were counting on water drops to hold that line
and the fire advanced past the point when we no longer were
able to use air tankers and helicopter drops from above. We
eventually got permission to continue emergency air operations,
but it took a reqluest from high level gov't officials. The
Bin Laden family was probably tying up the phone lines at
the same time!! any way we finally got thru and got it out.
http://www.fire.ca.gov/cdf/incidents/Poe%20Fire_59/photos.html
it was at 6,000 acres at the time of this graphic and went to
over 8,000 in the next couple of days
http://www.fire.ca.gov/cdf/incidents/Poe%20Fire_59/graphics/113_Poefirehillshademap.jpg
http://yubanet.com/powerhouse.shtml