Fire Season Has Begun

Well, blogging is a new technological skill that I am hoping to master, and I often refer to these ventures as "baptism by fire". Oddly enough, there WAS a fire to go along with it!

Last night, while preparing to walk down the block to the park for the weekly Missoula City Band concert, I ran into a neighbor who said, "Did you see? The mountain is on fire!" I looked up to see smoke billowing from Mt. Sentinel, a mere 6 blocks down. So, like any sane Missoulian would do...I grabbed my camera and headed down the street!

At 1:30 am the fires were eerily burning along the ridge line above my house. Most of the slurry bombers that are usually parked in Missoula (we have a smokejumper headquarters here in town) have been deployed to the fires in California, so for most of the night a single helicopter battled this blaze from the air, dipping into the Clark Fork River to pick up water and flying overhead to dump it. The hills were teeming with firefighters carrying hoses up the hill and attempting to dig a fire line quickly. Watching some of those trees erupt with firefighters standing so close made me wince, and be incredibly thankful that there are brave men and women who run up that hill into the face of danger.

Last week Missoulians watched fireworks....this week we watched fire. I had just been complaining to my daughter Madelyn that it always makes me sad when the mountain goes from a lush green in May and June to a sienna brown in July. I guess I should keep my mouth shut!

The most surreal part of the night included two things: 1) while walking down the street I watched a family entertaining a group of exchange students from Korea...they were sitting in the front lawn with a fully-appointed dinner table, chatting away and watching the fire on the hill not three blocks from them. 2) As I walked down the street schlepping my big camera and lens, the band concert at the park continued and the most beautiful soprano was singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow".

Sometimes life is strange....

The other sad part to this story was that the fire was caused by two children either playing with matches or playing with fireworks (this has been the case the last two times the mountains directly in Missoula have burned). I don't think I'd want to be either one of those two youngsters right now. But luckily no one was hurt, the hikers got off the mountain with an exciting story, the hillside will be even greener next year and these kids learned an invaluable lesson in the process.