Fires are erupting all over the area. I often smell the smoke and I find myself looking upward at the clouds. Are they clouds or smoke? Sometimes it is easy to distinguish one from the other. When the white puffs are billowing strongly in one direction I know that it is smoke.
Before the Alabaugh Fire I never looked at the skies in the same way. Now, at the height of fire season, I look up more often, not to admire, but to search for warnings. The county and the Red Cross set up a shelter for evacuees at our civic center. There were not many using it since the area evacuated was sparsely populated. I dropped in to see if I could be of any assistance. I was never called during the few days it was open, but I had a chance to visit with some of the people making use of the service. We talked about their concerns and it felt all too familiar. I assured one elderly woman that if the electricity went out, her insurance company would cover her freezer full of a side of beef. I did not mention the mess she might face if the possibility occurred. No need to add to her worries.
Today the owners were allowed back to their homes, the Red Cross closed up the shelter and life seems back to normal in our quiet community nestled in the Southern Hills. But the lightning continues to strike, smaller fires are still burning and the firefighters are still protecting, back burning and fighting the flames. This is fire season in our Hills, after all. We get used to it....sort of. Nature has always burned the forests, making room for the new, but now we have more people residing here. There is more to protect - more structures and more lives.
Fire is a powerful reminder that life is still filled with change. We may get too complacent living in our peaceful spot of the world. Life always has a way of jolting us out of our complacency and reuniting us with the struggles of others who meet greater challenges than we ever face in our idyllic Southern Black Hills of South Dakota.
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