Photo: Two year anniversary of the Lake Ballinger fire

On July 29, 2009, the hottest day of a hot summer with a record 103º, a fire which had been smoldering in the peat island in the middle of Lake Ballinger burst into full flame, flaring up into a large fire that engulfed the entire island.

Clouds of acrid smoke filled the surrounding neighborhoods in the lake bowl.

A light North Northwest wind drove the ash plume over most of Echo Lake and through North City, raining ash on Shoreline and parts of Lake Forest Park.

The fire photograph was photographed on July 29th, 2009 at about 7:20pm.  Photo by Carl Dinse.

The 2011 photograph was photographed on August 10th, 2011 at about 7:00pm, just after the 2nd year anniversary of the fire. Photo by Carl Dinse.

You can see that most of the tall trees that were once on the island are now gone.