After leaving the dry and incredibly flammable world of western Montana and Idaho, I thought I was done with wildfires. However, when I was driving from Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado to Amarillo, TX then again today on my drive from Little Rock, AR to Vicksburg, MS, I passed more fires. Both places were much greener and more fertile-looking than the yellow dry grasses that inhabit MT and ID. Both fires were on the side of the road and did not look like they were being taken care of when I drove past. Though I cannot say for sure, the fires did not seem intentional. One of the fires looked like it had just started and was lining the shoulder of the other side of the road. The other fire had very much been going on for a while as the billow of smoke could be seen for a couple miles beforehand. This one was more inland from the road but required me to drive through the billow.
These fires seem to pop up from nowhere (or just from a discarded cigarette butt). As the fire ranger told me in Idaho, sometimes the fire can be from a lightning strike days ago but it just didn't really ignite until suddenly it does. This has got to be terrifying and frustrating as a property owner of any kind in the area. At least the lightning strike can be grouped in there with "acts of God" like hurricanes and tornados. However, some of these are started from cigarette butts, something that actually could be avoided. To think you could lose your crop, your house or living beings all because someone threw their cigarette butt outside of their window.
This has been one of the most eye opening parts of this trip: the real threat that wildfires pose to seemingly most of the country. Growing up in VA and living in several states all over the US before getting to PA, I may have just plain lucked out that I was not in the wildfire risk area. I don't think I understood just how flammable apparently a lot of the US truly is.
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