a few days, just after 10 pm, i left work. as soon as i stepped out into the cool air, i smelled burning. it’s a distinct scent — one easily recognizable. A woman earlier had told me the roads leading into Fritch had been closed because of the wildfires. It’s the end of February. Within two days, the Smokehouse Creek Fire in the Texas Panhandle would become the largest fire on record, scorching over a million acres. When I got into my car, I googled the route to Fritch, which is about 70 miles north of Deaf Smith County, where I work. There was a bubble reaching from north of Amarillo all the way to Stillwater, Oklahoma. Fire. My coworker had shown me a video of cattle running from smoke and fire. We stepped off the floor and cried.
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