At three this afternoon, the sky above the mountains here was the kind of blue that signals a classic summer day. Thirty minutes later, we looked back toward the ridgeline to see a huge plume of orange-tinted smoke. As of tonight, the new Rey Fire has burned about 600 acres.
Smoke is an unfortunate sign of summer in many places in the West. In 2012, Christie reported on her own summer afternoon when blue skies turned to black and contemplates how losing what she owns might feel. Her fire was extinguished quickly, without injury and with one burned barn. We both hope, from that summer to this one, that all neighborhoods could be so lucky.
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photo by Christie Aschwanden