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Author's note: It has always made sense to me to see ñre in terms of life. At various times, we ascribe human traits such as hunger, anger, malice, generosity, and even intent to wildñres. As I was driving home from this particular ñre assignment, I reflected on the experience of being in charge of a vulnerable new ñre- veritably the parent of the ñre. As an actual parent, I am experiencing the wondrous and uncertain process of tending a life that can ultimately go forth and do good or harm. Of course, we do this with new ñres all the time ... and the most cynical parents of ñre are we. I believe this to be the source of the analogy. Who was involved and where it happened matter very little in the grand scheme of things. This really isn't about one ñre in one place. It is about all the times when a ñre could have been allowed to do what ñres want to do . for good or ill.
In tribute to 406.
Like many before it, the wildfire was conceived on a late summer afternoon as a drifting monsoonal cell bunched up, gathered its energy, and raked over the mountainous uplift, all the while spewing hard rain, wind, and lightning. The neighborhood it was born in was both rough and beautiful; the mountain formed minor peaks, valleys, and draws that spilled down from the ridges into deeper cuts and steeper slopes as the watercourses worked ever downward and outward toward the Pacific Northwest coastline.
The wetness that came with the storm dampened the usual sounds of the forest in the first few hours after the fire's arrival. The last outflows of wind from the collapsing cumulonimbus clouds streamed through the upper canopy, throwing off beads of water that fell as false raindrops. Curtains of steam rose from the surrounding boulders and swirled like midwives around the fragile new fire. The furrowed and moss-draped Douglas-fir trees loomed over the newcomer like reproaching passersby.
The instance of creation had occurred suddenly, with abstract natural violence and few witnesses. The rain kept the fire diminutive for its first inchoate hours; however, the wisps of gray smoke against the bluing sky confessed to the fire's existence...