The reason for the Airtanker activity at Redmond was the fire that was raging in the hills west of Madras. During the day the most obvious sign of the fire was the smoke that was hanging in the air and obscuring the view of the hills in the distance. However, as night fell, thing became quite different. The hillside where the fire was raging was suddenly very obvious. The red glow from the flames was visible even at the distance we were away.
You could see the fire was alive. The intensity and shape of the glow was varying all of the time. The ridges that were between our location and the fire sometimes almost completely obscured things but the glow was soon visible again. I have no idea how intense things were in the ground but I imagine it was very tough for those fighting it. Their bravery was recognized by all of us watching from a distance.