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The wind has dropped considerably. It’s still blowing hard enough to push ash across the meadow, but at least it isn’t trying to knock us over anymore.

South, toward the barns, a brand-new strip of black runs from the road to the buildings. Engine 1 is parked on the burned side of the big barn with two lines stretched out. Nate and Novak are working a smoldering stretch of fence line, and Weber’s engine is positioned on the far side.

Both barns are standing.

The big one has taken some heat along the south wall. The boards are black and blistered near the bottom, and smoke is still coming out of the roof, but the structure is intact.

Lindsey leans forward to get a better look.

“Oh my God.”

I squeeze her hand.

Rob pulls up beside Engine 1, and before I can open my door, Lindsey is reaching for hers.

“Hold on, honey.”

“I need to see.”

“I know, but you’re going to let Alison look at you first. We haven’t cleared the barn yet, and I don’t want you anywhere near it until we know it’s safe.”

She looks past me at the building, then nods. “You’re right.”

Rob climbs out and opens her door.

“Hi, Lindsey. Welcome back to civilization.”

She gets out and throws her arms around him so hard he nearly drops his radio.

“Hey,” he says, laughing. “Easy. I’m a delicate man.”

“Thank you.”

“Anytime, sweetheart.”

Alison meets us at the ambulance with an oxygen mask and a pulse ox. She settles Lindsey on the back step and starts asking questions while I give her a rundown of where we found her and how long she’d been exposed to the smoke.

Lindsey answers everything Alison asks, although she keeps trying to look around her at the barn.

Alison clips the pulse ox on her finger and listens to her lungs. Lindsey coughs twice while she’s doing it, and Alison looks at me.

“She’s going to need to get checked out at the hospital.”

“I figured.”

“I’m right here,” Lindsey says.

“I know, honey.”

“I can hear both of you.”

“Good,” Alison says. “Then you heard the part about the hospital.”

Rob chuckles behind me.

Alison keeps Lindsey on oxygen while she finishes her assessment. Her oxygen saturation is reassuring, but that doesn’t tell us everything about what she might have inhaled, and I’m not taking chances with her lungs after the amount of smoke she was breathing.

Lindsey looks toward the barn again.