Despite the car chase, the teens laughed.
They shared smartphone footage of sparks and colored smoke, bright against the tree-lined canyon, in 30-second stories.
They didn’t know the flames about to crown treetops and scour every leaf, branch and hiding place on the river, leaving avalanches of ash.
Photo by Matt Howard on Unsplash
Kim Witbeck 
“Avalanches of ash” was really striking.
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Thanks for the kind words!
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The descriptions of the fire are vivid here. I was not sure where the car chase fit in.
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Yeah, I was referring to the Eagle Creek fire where police had to chase the teens down(couldn’t find a sucinct hyperlink). 😭Thanks!
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Oh, I recognize this story. It sounds like fiction, and is not. The details you included were great and lended some strong authenticity to the piece. I would have liked if you could have brought it back to the kids in the end – that would have made it feel a little more complete.
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Thanks! I realized afterward that maybe it isn’t fiction (though my details are largely made up). Not sure it was the best choice for me. I did feel it just ended and not in a satisfying way, but word count!
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Avalanche of Ash was a great visual. Don’t know what those teens were thinking and I wonder if they cops got them.
Missing word? flames about to <— were about to?
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Oh no, I’m afraid to look! I really get mixed up editing micro stuff with my combo approach of very tiny edits and total rewrites. Thanks!
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