Part 3/12:
As they neared home, the scene was apocalyptic: thick smoke blanketed the sky, and the air was heavy with the smell of burning wood and dry vegetation. The dry summer and lack of rain since June had made the landscape tinder-dry, with ground cracking underfoot—conditions ripe for catastrophic fire. Smoke billowed so intensely that it appeared to distort the horizon, and the emotional turmoil intensified as they worried whether their dogs had been harmed.