The Ashes of the Dixie Fire Cast a Pall 1,000 Miles From Its Flames

The megafires of the West are sending out giant clouds of smoke and leaving a footprint much larger than the evergreen forests they level and the towns they decimate.

TAYLORSVILLE, Calif. — Captured by an astronaut’s camera, the Dixie Fire appears as a thick and sickening miasma pouring from the earth’s surface. At its center in the eastern mountains of California, the fire is devouring acre after acre of rugged wildland to become the second largest blaze in the state’s history. But Dixie and other megafires in the West have left a footprint much larger than the evergreen forests they level and the towns they decimate. Summer after summer, California, a global leader in battling air pollution from vehicles, sends giant clouds of haze filled with health-damaging particles across the country. Even as far as Denver, 1,100 miles to the east, the fire has helped create a pall of noxious smoke during an already scorching summer.