We Can't Stop the World-Just Buckle Our Spurs for the Ride

摘要

As I write, a fire races up the mountain a few miles east of me. Smoke mixes with air already polluted by automobiles. Crews from several communities try to keep the fire out of conifers. Choppers, working like bees, take water from First Dam. Planescircle overhead. A tanker drops red retardant to slow even redder flames. The Fire Marshall says they don't know how it started. It began near a new housing development, half-million-dollar houses built on mule deer winter range. Vegetation is mostly cheatgrass with islands of sagebrush and scrub maple that survived past fires. Plants are tinder dry from drought. Any spark could send a wave of flames up the mountain into juniper and then fir. The fire has dropped a power line. If it is not stopped in the next half mile, it could be a big one.