Outreach no. 010

              OUTREACH the newsletter of ae 7&e 7e 57aawa ounaceitwt tda tea teo or gor at 3t sadu SAiu sutt taal raal taar watce euawciw utagde RCUS BACH DIRECTOR DIRECTOP NO 10 THE LETTER when I 1 came into my study to write this copy of OUTREACH I 1 smelled smoke wood smoke in mountain country such as this british columbia region on kootenay lake the air is so clear and rarefied you can catch a scent a mile away this was further six miles six miles across the lake and from my study window I 1 could see a billow of grey white smoke rising like a mushroom cloud from a draw near midge creek the telephone rang A neighbor wanted to know if I 1 had seen a fire I 1 gave her my report smoke volumes of smoke but at this sunsplashed sun splashed four oclock hour I 1 could see no flames I 1 found myself hoping that any conflagration along the tinderdry tinder dry railroad rightofway right of way would have been put out quickly and that all we had to worry about was smoke my wife and I 1 rushed outside the whirring funnels of grey were mounting higher thicker A wind was rising the lake was starting to kick up through the field glasses I 1 now saw flames crimson explosive among the trees snapping like springs of steel into the torrent of smoke for five hot rainless weeks the parched earth the dust dry forests the arid undergrowth up and down kootenay lake had caused us concern but our valley had been spared for weeks thousands of men had been fighting fires in nearby idaho washington montana sundance fire shaw creek fire bonners ferry fire the rising southeast wind shipped the lake into a tempest now we could see with the naked eye how the leaping flames put the torch to the towering trembling trees that covered the mountain slopes to their 6000foot 6000 foot summits in a moment there was fire everywhere the smoke had risen to give the sun an eerie crimson cast as if you were seeing