The sight of a giant smoke plume on the horizon is one of those sights that I regard as quintessential Arizona. Having never encountered wildfire before I moved to the state, the idea that a swath of forest or grassland could suddenly be turned to charcoal and ash and threaten towns and lives was new and scary and fascinating all at once.

So when I was contemplating a walk in the woods a few weeks ago — a long walk, that is, along the Arizona Trail from the Mogollon Rim back home to Flagstaff — I was at first alarmed to see a big plume of smoke rising on a windy afternoon to the southeast, right along the route of the trail. This was the Blind Fire, which had started as a small blaze kindled by a lightning strike, but grown into a much larger fire when Forest Service officials decided to establish a more than 5,000-acre managed fire zone around the initial burned area. Hikers on the trail were told to detour off the trail along forest roads.

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