Childhood memory

When I was around ten years old, I experienced for the first time a wildland fire. You see, I'm French, and I come from a small town in the Alps Mountain, covered in snow four month a year. Forest fires are not something we experience a lot. But this summer of 2003, a violent storm caused Mont Néron to catch fire. This mountain was covered in pines and other trees, and it also was very close to the city of Grenoble, the largest city of the area. I don't have very precise memories of these days, but I do remember the flames, bright orange in the dark at night. I do remember the sound of the trees roaring in the night and the engines of planes trying to stop the fire. Most of all, I remember the fear of people having to move away from their home because the fire was getting too close, too fast.

   

Because Mont Néron had such an important amount of fuel and because this summer has been particularly dry, the fire lasted 33 days. In the end, men could not stop the fire. It stopped because it finally began to rain heavily, causing temperature to drop and hygrometry to rise quickly enough to stop the fire. The consequences on the ecosystems were terrible. From my point of view, as a kid, Mont Néron was dead. It has all been turned into ashes and dust in 33 days.

        

More than ten years later, I grew up, I learned things about ecological resiliency and all these amazing process allowing nature to reborn from its ashes. Yet, more than ten years later, it still amazed me each time I see Mont Néron, how small trees and patches of flowers can grow there, where my childhood memory only saw dust and death. More than ten years later, I realized that fear comes from the unknown, which is why I am here.