#TBT: Ash Devils, v.2.0

This was first posted July 7, 2012.

While the heaviest smoke has lifted, our skies are still filled with the haze of all the wildfires burning…

We sit on the edge of our seats, nervous, scanning the skies for smoke trails that will lead us to tiny fires we can dispatch quickly and easily.

We had a call the other day, one juniper on fire from lightning… Everyone rushed to the scene, paranoid that even a short delay will lead to another incident… or even worse, something like the Ash Creek Fire in Montana.

248,600 acres have burned there.

I can’t imagine.

Entire ranches have disappeared.

I can just make myself ill thinking about them… the poor families, the poor livestock.

One of my mother’s favorite sayings was, “There, but for the Grace of God, go I.”

And that phrase keeps running through my head… how much worse it could have been…

So, while we run to the top of the hill to make sure it is Ash Devils swirling into the sky and not, in fact, smoke… I give a prayer of thanks.

This 4,000 acre fire was and is a pain to deal with… but it’s manageable.

We can handle it.

And the Ash Devils dance.

And we watch.

Find me here!

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