Landfill Fire

Wow it really stinks around here tonight.

My blog header makes some joke about being able to smell the end of the world from here when the wind blows from the right direction. Some locals have assumed that I was talking about the nearby towns of Trona or Inyokern. I wasn't thinking of either of them when I wrote the header. It was a generic joke.

Tonight its not so funny anymore. Sometime around 1 PM this afternoon our landfill caught on fire. We could see the dark black smoke billowing upwards as the wind blew it past the city and off to the north. All afternoon the western skyline was covered with smoke that shifted between black to gray to white then back to black again.

Then around 11 PM this evening the wind shifted a bit and now the smoke is being blown into town. So now instead of just watching the fire, we get to breathe it also.

When my family moved from Rapid City SD to Cheyenne in 1973 the City of Cheyenne still allowed thier residents to burn their trash in concrete incinerators in their back yard. It was one of my chores to take out and burn the trash each week. While I liked the parent-authorized chance to play with matches and burn things. I discovered that I really disliked the smell of burning trash.

I discovered tonight that 33 years later, my sense of smell hasn't changed much. I still don't like the smell of burning trash. But at least is doesn't smell like the end of the world.