Be careful of the questions we ask

 I sent a text to my bother-in-law, something to the effect that is seemed like a slow start to forest fire season. We had just emerged from days of snow, rain and wind and the ground was only started to dry up. Fire seemed like such a remote possibility.

Within minutes of posting that question the residents of Fort McMurray got their Emergency Notification that they were being put on evacuation alert. Meanwhile, residents near a fire in the Grande Prairie region were in the same situation as were the good folks up in Fort Nelson, BC. All it took was for me to ask the question and fires roared their way to the top of the news.

I think I am mostly over the trauma of the fire and evacuation that happened in 2016. I'm able to let my gas tank flirt with empty below a quarter tank. My iPhone is often in that 20-30 percent range in terms of its battery. And my pulse doesn't race out of control when we see smoke. It's taken me years to get comfortable with all three of those things. I can't imagine what's it's like for the thousands of people who ran the gauntlet of fire and lost homes in 2016.

Social Media blew up on Friday as communities reacted to news of forest fires. The one southwest of Fort McMurray is still growing and is listed as 4,000 hectares this morning. Thankfully, the winds on Saturday pushed it south away from town. 

The fire near from sister and brother-in-law's place northeast of Grande Prairie is equally troublesome, currently listed at 1,382 hectares.

What is a hectare? I need to wrap my brain around this. A hectare expressed as a square is 100 metres by 100 metres. So, a 1 square kilometre area contains 100 hectares. That means that 1,000 hectares would be an area 10 km by 10 km. Whew! That hurt my brain. 

My sister, a weekly blogger herself, wrote a post that is worth reading. You can find it here. I think she's worth following, as her content is excellent, though I might be a wee bit biased. 

Meanwhile, we caught wind that Heather's brother and his family were camped at Sandy McNab in Kananaskis Country. We renewed our park pass and hit the road to see if we could find them. We did! Then we enjoyed a three hour hike on a beautiful smoke-free Saturday. I'm glad we did, as smoke-free days might be in short supply for the next few weeks.