During the summer of 2011, which happens to be one of the worst droughts on record for those of us here in the United States Southwest, fires erupted all over causing mass destruction in many states.  I reside in Albuquerque NM, and we were very fortunate here in the city.  No large fires.  A few small ones sprang up in the Rio Grande Bosque, but were quickly put out with little damage.  However, Albuquerque, as well as a large part of the state, were victims from the mass amount of smoke and ash from the Arizona Wallow fires in June 2011.  The first picture below is one I took from my back yard late one afternoon.  No, it is not a setting sun… it is pink due to the thick smoke in the air.  Ash covered everything for several days, choked our swamp coolers, and caused a large increase of asthma related problems in the hospitals.  Below that are three photos I took from the north side of Albuquerque of the smoke pouring from the fires in Los Alamos (the Las Conchas fire), which threatened the nuclear lab facility there (home of the A-Bomb.)  Los Alamos NM is approximately 70 miles how the crow flies. More…