Raging Inferno

Around 11 p.m. last night, Pat stepped outside to see if the wood smoke had cleared enough to open the windows. I could tell as soon as he opened the door that it hadn’t as the smell of wood smoke drifted in. Soon he stuck his head back in the door.

“You have got to come out here and see this,” he said.

“Can I even breathe?” I said.

“Just get out here.”

With hand over mouth, I stepped out and looked in the direction Pat was pointing. A raging inferno of a campfire was blazing about an eighth of a mile away. Mostly smoke with the orange of unseen flames at the bottom leaped up and around a large trailer. It soared at least 30 feet into the air.

I couldn’t believe it and quickly ran back inside to breathe freely again. Pat came inside and said he could hear people laughing and talking loudly in that direction. The trailer where the fire was raging was right across from the campground host. Would he do anything about this crazy blaze? The “fire” quickly became a big ball of smoke that snaked through the campground. Other campers were coming out of their trailers to see what was happening.

A short while later Pat returned inside to tell me the fire was out. But the after effects of the smoke from that fire and the five others around us would be with us all night and into the morning. Our windows stayed closed as a cool breeze blew outside.