FIRE DANGER WARNINGS GO LIVE IN THE WEST

HIGH ALERT: FIRE DANGER IN THE WEST

Today we're on high alert in the Northwest for fires that might be set by thunderstorms.

I'm reminded that I met a retired firefighter in Manzanita a few weeks ago. First, he was a smoke-jumper. After a few years of smoke-jumping from planes and helicopters he joined a local force, all in rural northwest Alaska. Finally, he retired to Oregon.

We met after I'd just given a reading from my book, Growing Green Two Ways!. He approached me afterward. I told him I'd been on a fire crew in Washington State. It was a summer job when I was just out of high school.

It was amazing how his long experience and my short experience in firefighting helped us to form an immediate bond between us. Firefighters band together.

He liked my firefighting story from the Cascade Mountains near Morton, Washington, and bought the book.

My new friend is writer like me, and I hope I'll see my Alaska firefighting buddy at another book event in the Hoffman Center soon.

Meantime, I have the best supportive thoughts I can muster for anyone involved in fighting fires set by lightning strikes predicted for the next few days.