National Geographic article about wildland fire

On May 16 Wildfire Today gave you a heads up about an article on wildland fire that would appear in the July issue of National Geographic. It should be arriving in mailboxes right now, but their web site has on online version of the article and some amazing pictures of fires. No one takes pictures like the NG photographers, and they did not disappoint this time. Here is an example (click on it to see a larger version):

Photographer Mark Thiessen took most, if not all, of the photos--some of which can be found HERE. The online version of the article is here. It's lengthy, on ten web pages.

Be sure to read the interview with Thiessen about how he got the photos. One thing that helped....he has a red card and has shot photos of fires for 10 years. Here is an excerpt from the interview:

Any other situations where you tempted fate?

I was in a helicopter over Lake Arrowhead [California] shooting aerials. It was really rough up there. We were the only aircraft in the air over those fires. The air tankers weren’t allowed to fly, because the winds were too strong for them. So that picture in the story where you see a bunch of homes burning down from the air—those are million-dollar mountain homes, and that’s when you need the air tankers the most. But it was just too windy for them.