Joyce Bertschy has lived in Picture Rocks for 25 years and has developed an uncanny ability to find unburied treasure, packrat middens under the hood of her car and cholla balls. She is a news assistant at the Arizona Daily Star.
I smelled it before I even knew about the Elk Horn Fire in Baboquivari Peak Wilderness southwest of Tucson.
Last Thursday, I thought our house or something near our house was on fire. Fires and mobile homes are a deadly combination. Anxiety washed over me for several minutes while I checked the house. I didn’t find anything alarming.
I thought one of our neighbors was burning trash. I didn’t realize desert brush and grass were burning — more than 50 miles southwest of us.
On Tuesday, I noticed a white haze in the western sky. I live in Picture Rocks and have to drive over a pass in the Tucson Mountains to get home.
The haze was thicker on the west side of the mountains. The smoke smelled was stronger. By then, the fire had burned about 14,500 acres.
The powers that be are letting the fire burn to clear out underbrush. That’s good for the land. But it’s a little disconcerting to smell and see the smoke at my house.
Last night, I did not notice the smell as much. The sky did not seem quite as hazy. The fire is 60 percent contained but more than 23,000 acres have burned up.
