Valentine Fire restores forest and community
Aerial fire ignitions conducted during the Valentine Fire. Spheres, about the size of ping-pong balls, filled with an incendiary cocktail of potassium permanganate activated by ethylene glycol, were dropped by firefighters to reduce the fuels available to the main body of the Valentine Fire. (USDA Forest Service photo by Danny Fairchild)
Smoke rising from a forest is ominous. Often it is the…