The world is on fire

Or at least this little part of it. A few minutes ago, “Little Mountain,” about 5 miles south of here, looked like this:

Now it looks like this:

My first hint that something was amiss was when the light coming through the windows turned yellow. Now the smell of smoke has fully infiltrated the house, and ash is falling from the sky.

Last night and through around noon today we had a lot of lightning (more on that in a later post). But only a little rain. And we’ve not had any rain of consequence for a month or so. So… dry plus hot plus lightning equals wildfire. I called up the Corinne, UT, fire department and was told that it’s located at Fort Ranch, and is under control It is, nevertheless, creepy as hell. My neighbor almost lost a house in California to one of their incessant wildfires, and I am understandably a little dubious about the idea of my home being improved with combustion.

Fort Ranch is a dozen or more miles away, and between here and there are lush green farms and marshlands, so the likelihood of anything gettign this far is astronomically small. But I’m still getting a headache from the smell…