Fire Season Begins...2009

Around seven in the evening of July 18,  I stepped out on my balcony to capture these images of the very beginnings of both the Westbank/Rosedale and Fintry/Terrace Mtn.fires. The Terrace Mtn. fire was largely ignored for almost a week while the Rosedale fire was being brought under control. The end result? A very dangerous three week firestorm, rivaling the Kelowna/Okanagan Mtn. firestorm of 2003.  The point? 2009 was a hot dry year, and we've had a very mild, dry winter, spring is early and we haven't had a lot of precipitation. This year, the BC government, in its infinite wisdom, slashed 400 million from the firefighting budget , coincidentially, the amount that they spent fighting these fires in 2009.