FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Saturday, July 9th, 2022

TRANSCRIPT: CHARLES BARKLEY, DOUGLAS COUNTY FIRE CHIEFS SCOTT LINDGREN AND ERIC GUEVIN

American Century Championship

Saturday, July 9, 2022

Lake Tahoe, Nevada, USA

Edgewood Tahoe

Fire Chief, Tahoe Douglas Fire Protection District Scott Lindgren

Division Chief Fire Marshal Eric Guevin

Charles Barkley

Quick Quotes

FIRE CHIEF SCOTT LINDGREN: The fire that we had in 2007, 15 years ago, he’s always been a big supporter of the fire service in Lake Tahoe, has been everywhere, and we just want to thank him for that.

And we want to get some awareness to the Fire Rescue Helicopter Program that we’re trying to start here in the Lake Tahoe Basin. We almost burned this whole place down last year, and we do not have a designated fire rescue helicopter to protect us up here. We drastically need it. And we just want to help get the word out what we’re trying to do to protect this amazing place from burning down.

CHARLES BARKLEY: You know, I’ve been coming here for almost 30 years now. This is the first thing I put on my schedule every year. And just a national treasure. I don’t have any idea why this is the only place in the world that is not hot right now.

I mean, I tell people every day. They say, Why you like coming to Lake Tahoe? I say, First of all, the scenery is amazing. For some reason, it’s the only place in the world that’s not hot.

So I look forward to coming every year. And obviously you guys live here, and I admire and respect what you all do. Fire danger is a really, really issue forever.

You know, I came up here 15 years ago and saw catastrophic damage. It broke my heart. I’d actually never seen fire damage before.

And I want to thank NBC for giving me a camera to go up there. I think it would be fun for us to go up there and come up here just to have fun and play golf and have a good time.

So I went up there and saw the damage firsthand, and, man, it was heartbreaking. Those people were amazing. And I’m glad I brought some awareness to something that’s really, really important. Hey, fire danger is not going anywhere. And I’m not going into climate change or whatever, but fire damage is a really, really big deal.

So anything you can do to help, please help these guys get their helicopter, please, because, hey, we can’t let nothing happen to this place.