Incredible photograph of golfers playing in fiery surroundings goes viral

What’s the story?

Photos of three golfers playing their sport as the world around them were on fire went viral on social media today. While the photo does look artificial, an amateur photographer, Kristi McCluer says otherwise as she snapped the photo of the blazing Oregon fire.

McCluer’s says, “I saw it while skydiving,”. She said this before the fire was formally reported on 2nd September. While McCluer was skydiving, she saw a thick vertical spiral of smoke. An hour later, the smoke had gone horizontal and it could be seen spreading across the sky.

It is believed that the fire was started when a 15-year old and some of his friends were using fireworks. It has also been confirmed that The Oregon State Police have not arrested the 15-year-old. He is yet to be publicly identified.

The photographs were then posted by official social media account of the Beacon Rock Gold course with a hilarious caption.

In case you didn’t know

Even though the wildfire looks dreadfully close, it is not as close to the golfers as it seems in the photos. The venue of this fiery event was confirmed by Golf Digest to be the Beacon Rock Golf Course, North Bonneville, Washington.

The Columbia River provides a buffer between the fire and the golf course. Mark Mayfield, Beacon Rock's manager said that there is no danger at this time as the golf course was a one-and-a-half miles away.

The heart of the matter

The Eagle Creek fire was formally reported around 4 pm. on Saturday and exponentially grew to 3,000 acres through the night as high-speed winds ravaged the area. Nearby communities were asked to evacuate to safe spaces. Six days have passed since the time the fire broke out, but the Eagle Creek fire has been contained only by a meager 5% having burned a sizeable area of Portland, that is approximately 31,000 acres.

The entire area affected by the fire has been issued a Red Flag Warning. An Air Quality Alert warning has also been issued. It has been estimated by the National Wildfire Coordinating Group that the fire will be fully contained by Saturday, September 9. The National Wildfire Coordinating Group

What’s next?

We are yet to find out what action is going to be taken against the 15-year-old who is supposed to have started this fiery event.

Author’s take

The incident has been subject to a lot of humorous content, but it is a very serious matter and we are thankful that there was no loss of life.