Things journalists do

When there's a wide, towering eruption of black smoke flying into the air, conventional thinking would suggest that one should turn around and head the other way.

Nope, not me. Nor the dozens of others along Alameda who were at a near dead stop watching the brushfire near the Lowry Sports Complex last Sunday.

We were in the office around 4 p.m. when we saw this small billow of smoke in the distance. It didn't look that big, but we didn't realize that it was about 3-1/2 miles away.

I grabbed my camera and headed out there. Just then, a friend called me. As I got closer to the fire, my mind faded away from the conversation and focused on the huge stack of smoke shooting into the sky. To be honest, it was a bit surreal. I wish I had some pictures of the smoke from Havana and Alameda.

By the time I was able to pull into a parking lot, the fire died down.

Imagine this times 20.