New Harmony Fire

We run our cattle near the freeway in New Harmony. Over the past couple of weeks our county has watched the flames and eaten the smoke of that fire. It began as a prescribed burn and then winds grabbed it and it was out of control.

My husband went down to check on the cattle and found people trying to get into the property. When he confronted them he found it was fire officials trying to get in. He informed them that he was the landowner. They were relieved. They had been trying to reach him. They needed the property (or at least a portion of it) to set up their base camp for the fire fighters.

Within half an hour semi trucks began to roll in and within an hour or so their was a small city on our property complete with 500 tents, showers, port-a-potties, a cafeteria, and many trailers for the business of the work. They also found a place for the helipad and tanks of water. What an amazing operation!

When camp was settled and the town of New Harmony was out of danger (the town was between our property and the fire) I was able to go down and take some pictures. I was honored because they weren't even letting press in at that point.

It was dusk, which I thought would be the perfect time to get some good golden sunlight on the subjects. But I didn't think through to the fact that with all the smoke it is Always dusk and dusk on top of dusk makes for darker-than-desirable shooting conditions. But, I think I got some interesting shots anyway.

I'll post a picture a day for a while and let you get a feel for what it was like.

Whew... thanks for reading all that!

Enjoy!


"Where Smoke Meets Fire"