A thick blanket of brown gray smoke settled over our neighborhood. It covered the entire front range of the Rocky Mountains and spread east over Denver on its way to Chicago, Pittsburgh, and the east coast. Meanwhile, about 50 miles north, my brother in law and his wife were evacuating, leaving their home in a state of uncertainty and anxiousness. Their small town on the eastern edge of Rocky Mountain National Park was surrounded on three sides by wildfire. The closest, aptly named the east troublesome fire, had started a few days earlier on the west side of the park. In one terrifying night it exploded.