BURNING EMBERS

I'm a logger's daughter and I grew up in an Oregon logging town. There is one way into Oakridge and there is one way out. State Highway 58. Once you get out of town heading northwest to Eugene the first few miles are either water and trees on one side and hill and trees on the other with only a narrow shoulder between the road and the trees. Other end of the road is hills, or moutain on one side or a fall off on the other. trees on both sides. Not a good place to be during a forest fire.

The president's mouth piece has described the surge in virus cases as "embers". She's thinking fireplace I'm thinking the Eagle Creek Fire  and the back in 2017. A teenager who was about as bright as the students holding virus parties threw a lighted fire work down the hill into some trees during a burn ban. The fire burned over 50,000 acres and took three months to finally control. And like the virus the fire didn't burn the whole 50,000 acres. It hop, skipped, and jumped as the wind carried burning debris and "embers."

The Columbia Gorge is also known as the Great Northwest Wind Tunnel. When that wind starts really blowing it carries everything ahead of it from surfers at Hood River on the east end to burning branches on the west end at Troutdale. In sixteen hours the first day those "embers" had jumped thirteen miles. Granted the whole thirteen miles was not burning. But smoke, debris, and rocks closed I 84. That and the need to get the civiliams out of the way so the fire crews could get where they needed to go. Towns like Cascade Locks were under off and on mandatation evacuation warnings. The fish hatchery was forced to release young salmon six months early. 

The wind carried "embers" across the Columbia and caused spot fired on the Washington side of the river. Actually when you are in the narrowest part of the Gorge Washington isn't that far away. The river itself was closed to traffic for twenty miles. No barge traffic. At height of the fires at least an inch of ash fell in the Portland area. With not only Eagle Creek but other fires throughout Northern California. Oregon, and Washington the Willamette Valley filled with smoke. I was in rehab in Springfield at the time. The smoke was so bad you couldn't see across the parking lot. We had smoke hugging the ceiling. 

Even after the freeway was opened the old Columbia Gorge Highway was closed for weeks as damaged trees were felled, moved out, and rock debris removed. The fires were officially out in three months but smoldering areas were found at the end of the winter. Perhaps this virus is like a smoldering forest fire. Pops up where "embers" drop. Citizens who equate wearing a mask with a loss of thier so called liberty. Teens and young adults who hold virus parties. More like spoiled brats in my own opinion.