About the Image(s)

Everglades NP Fire
Nikon D810, Nikkor 70-300mm lens, ISO 500, F16, 1/200
I live in south Florida where the Florida Everglades begins less that 3 miles from my backdoor. Although I found it dull and boring when I arrived here nearly a half century ago, I’ve grown to love “the Swamp” and generally spend several days each month deep in its confines. It is called “the river of grass” and in most years there is 3-4 feet of water that covers the land as it flows from central Florida to the Gulf of Mexico. Only the hammocks (where some trees grow) rise above the river of grass. I never thought with all that water that it would burn. Florida is in the midst of a 3 year drought, much of the wetland are now dry and where I used to take my kayak now only has a few inches of water. This spring a lightning strike ignited the dry grasses and quickly became the Coptic Fire that burned 20,000 acres. In the early days of the fire I talked a retired ranger I know into going with me to see what was happening. There are limited roads into the Everglades. We managed to drive to within a mile of the nearly dry ponds just south of Lone Pine Lake (one of my favorite photo opt sites) where we could see the fire in the distance and met a fire crew (that I’ve ridden with in the past). The fire was moving east as we heading south. I was allowed to stay with them and photographed them working until the fire increased in intensity and began moving faster. This months photo shows the fire as it burned one of the hammocks where pine trees had been growing. The fire team loaned my a respirator and jacket for safety purposes and gave me instructions as to where I could position myself. The smoke was intense, the heat was frightening. I was only at the fire for about 40 minutes before a ranger picked up my friend and I and took us back to the car. I used an old camera and a cheap lens just to be on the safe side.