Anyway, we're fourth in size, and 44th in population. Haven't hit a million yet.
So we have these big forests, National Forests, that might be bigger than your state, depending. And we are a bit scattered, outside the huge (Yuge!) urban centers, like Billings, not quite 250.000 the largest, and Miles city, closing in on 10K.
We get fires, forest fires. There is a lot of room for them to start undetected, by lightening strike, and not be detected for hours or even days, with the loss of the fire lookouts on the lookouts.
Some, not all, of the forest fires going on here are:
That's sad. Where did the lookouts go in the look out towers? No overhead pilots? I can't believe the population of your big, YUGE state is less than my teeny tiny state. Wanna trade? I know you don't. I wouldn't either.
ReplyDeletePresently a large fire is burning north of Big Sur. Another is growing rapidly outside of Fresno. They seem to have brought a major fire in So Cal under containment. I'm grateful for every ounce of moisture-fog or marine haze. We are in debt to the firefighters as they battle with these forces of nature.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking like Tom Cochrun. Firefighters, EMS, first responders don't get their due. Our fire district is part time, they earn 12/hour and they're on duty as scheduled.
ReplyDeleteWow. I know fires are cyclical and needed for Re
ReplyDeleteGrowth but there are far too many of them it seems lately.
XO
WWW
Scary scary stuff...
ReplyDeleteOur fire seasons are bad enough every year, but because of the drought and changes in the weather, fire season is all year now. Yep, the weather is most def changing!
Your photos are really good, when enlarged they are even better. The last photo is really scary.
I had to drive into Prescott this afternoon and saw a sign alongside the road that said something like "Managed Fire Ahead". I'm not sure what that is considering it's been raining a lot this week and I never saw any sign of it but I sure did smell the smoke. Nasty!
ReplyDeleteIs that smoke getting to you? Looks awful and unhealthy.
ReplyDeleteWe are lucky to be having a wet year. With fire fighting policies changing you never know how it's going to be handled. In some areas it is difficult to stay out of fire prone places.
ReplyDeleteWhoa. We get tornados and earthquakes, but rarely big fires. Those look scary.
ReplyDeleteFires are a part of life out west--even if you are not close, the smoke can get intense 100s of miles away. Stay safe.
ReplyDeleteFrightening images indeed. This morning I read about the fires burning in Siberia.
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