#416fire

"We've survived worse" ------------ #watercolor #painting #characters #colorado #durangocolorado #victorian #416fire #artwork

It’s good to be back home again. Fires that are making this? Not so good. Hope they’re all under control soon. #sunset #denver #durangofire #416fire #denvertography #westisbest

Fire chasing in my fries T-shirt and no makeup turned into a night photo shoot ✨

I miss my job, and would like this fire to be out.

Outside, driving home, everything looks just how I'd imagine the end of the world would be. Thick, choking smoke, ash falling like snow from the sky, and in the distance a deep red glow looms in the invisible hills overhead. Police lights reflect off the black and grey clouds. Most everyone is gone. Just a few houses lit up and an eerie silence fills the valley. I feel like I drove towards danger. Like all the signs tell me to turn back before it is too late, that only death was at the end of the road ahead. I turned into my little village, a collection of small homes. The last little settlement at the edge of the abyss. Families are huddled together, doors and windows shut, covered as tighlty as possible. The smoke threatens to come in anyway. Living rooms smell like campfire. Cars are filled with belongings, some still being loaded, trunks open. Neighbors holding rags over their faces but still coughing. I feel nauseous from it filling my lungs amd my eyes water. I cannot explain the weird emotions I feel looking at everything. There's some fear mixed in with sadness? Other complex emotions are in my mind. It just all doesn't seem real. The tragedy of the wildfire raging just a short distance away is almost too much to comprehend at first. That primal fear burns inside you too. Beautiful and frightening, you can't help but stare at the flames. Sleep is comes slowly with dark dreams.

A short timelapse showing the smoke clearing in the morning. It's been doing this every day so far. The smoke rolls in at night, then clears out fairly rapid. This was taken only between 10 and 10:30. It's been a wild experience this far. -------------- #416fire #durangocolorado #timelapse #durango #colorado