Late fire season serves as a reminder to us all

For the better part of the summer of 2016, the Inland Northwest has been living on borrowed time when it comes to wildfires.

It was just a year ago, as school was about to start, that a dingy horizon and smelly air greeted us for seemingly days on end as fires torched hundreds of thousands of acres in Okanogan, Ferry and Stevens counties.

This year, both mornings and evenings, have been generally delightful.

But on the afternoon of Aug. 21, the predicted dry cold front that passed through our region proved to be the trigger to ignite a series of fires that brought us all a smoky dose of realit...