Forest fires

From the campus (in a safe distance), we saw and smelled forest fires in the mountains on 2 days this week. At first I thought the grey-blue colour was just because of clouds, but on the second day it even smelled smoky.
Last year, there were larger forest fires at some of the mountains. On the hike to Bear Peak today I could see the results. After 1 year, some flowers are already growing on the ashes.