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[personal profile] sherryillk
So, in the summers, barring rain, I like to keep my windows open for fresh air and to cool my room down.

Today was a particularly warm day, 91 F, and we haven't seen a hint of rain in probably over a month so of course my windows are opened at this moment. But I can't help but think about closing them. Frankly, it smells like a barbecue outside. And since it's nearing 3 AM, there's no way it's an actual barbecue.

No, instead, it's the wildfire that's across the river over in White Salmon. :\

It started this afternoon and I presume it's still going. I think anyway, the major part of the fire is obscured by a house even though I did have a pretty good view of part of the fire from my bedroom window. But it's funny because from what I can tell, that part of the fire is out since I can't see any more flames. But this is the first time today that I've smelled the smoke. I wonder if the winds changed? Not that there is too much wind outside right now (kinda strange for this area, actually but a good thing in regards to wildfires).

Anyway, I first noticed the fire as I was driving. On a particular stretch of road, I had a good view of the Washington border and I noticed two women looking into the distance with binoculars. I assumed they were tourists looking at Mt. Adams and the beautiful view but then I noticed the massive amounts of smoke. Wildfires aren't incredibly uncommon in this area since our summers are exceptionally dry year after year, but they don't exactly happen all the time, probably not even once a year. Hood River's had a few, the most memorable one was when it was in the field behind our house. Our neighborhood had been evacuated but we were actually away in Portland that day and noticed the smoke when we were driving back. We weren't allowed back to house for a good number of hours and damn, it got close to our property line. As in, within a few yards. Scary stuff, wildfires...

But back to the White Salmon fire... I noticed the smoke first, but as I wondered if it was a real wildfire or a controlled burn (which they do here so it could have been nothing), I noticed the rather telling swatch of flames and that's when I realized that even if it was a controlled burn, it was a very uncontrolled one. And it just seemed to get bigger with even more smoke. When night fell, that's when it go pretty interesting. Before, you could just see smoke and some flames because the smoke mostly obscured them. But when it got dark, that's when it started to light up. It was actually pretty cool but I can only say that because it's not threatening my house and because there's a river separating the fire and my town.

Last I heard, it had gotten about 1,500 acres but no buildings have burned nor people hurt. And now I can't see any flames where before there had been so maybe it's contained? I can still hear the helicopters though...

I'm guessing this fire is because of some careless individual since it usually is... :\ I do have to wonder though. Apparently, four fire broke out, two of which were quickly extinguished. The other two quickly spread and burned the 1,500 acres. How does four different fires in the general location start up? Could it be really, really deliberate and not just an act of carelessness? Could wind have caused embers to start fires in three other locations? I'm really curious to find out how these fires started but it'll probably be a while before that comes to light.
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May 2017

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