SACRAMENTO, Calif. — There is no fire season any more, there are just fires — a recently popularized adage that’s becoming more true every year. Yet summer remains the most dangerous time for wildfires in California and surrounding western states. In just the last few days, Sacramento’s air quality has been affected by fires viewable from Highway 50 as well as from smoky air wafting in from Napa and Solano Counties.
I saw one recent fire up close. As I pulled onto the freeway Memorial Day morning, there was a familiar, blackened hillside with tufts of gray smoke rising. Red sirens flashed behind the smoke and cars slowed to rubberneck.
But I already knew there was a fire nearby the second I stepped outside. From my first breath out the front door, the hair on the back of my neck raised. I stopped — inhaled again — and confirmed: There was a fire nearby.
