Fires

It's been really dry in this area for quite sometime. In fact, I believe we are approximately six inches below our normal rainfall amount for the year thus far.

Combine that with heat, low humidity, and morons......and you get fire.

There is a local park, really popular with people around here. it has a camping area, playgrounds, a Bandstand, Frisbee golf course, swimming lakes, fishing lakes, and nature trails. Two weeks ago 1/2 of the park went up in smoke. I don't have any idea what actually caused the fire, but I'm sure some dumbass with a cigarette was involved.

The trails were sandy, with palmettos and longleaf pines everywhere. It was really quite beautiful. Now, it looks like a battleground. Three days after the fire, when the park finally opened up again, the boys and I took a walk through the park. Several areas were still smoldering as we walked. It was kind of erie in a way, the smoky haze made it look surreal.
We walked the whole thing and tried to recognize old landmarks, but it was very difficult to recognize anything pre-burn. But, some of the wildlife is still there, we saw two turtles along the trail.
There are currently another six or seven fires burning in this county. We have another month or so, until our rainy season starts. I just hope we don't end up like 1998 again. (Huge droughts, and 1/2 of the state in smoke.)