Page 75 of Heat Advisory

“It’s hard to tell because a lot of pines look the same, but I think those are lodgepole pines.” Gale squinted as she tried to see behind me.

I didn’t know as much about plants as Gale, but I had heard of both of those trees before. That’s when my mind started racing. Why had I heard of those before?

I stared at the trees around me and then down at the charred ground. My gaze focused on the pinecones on what remained of the forest floor.

So many pines. So much of this landscape was scorched and dead, but the pinecones just sat there looking like they were sleeping and ready to start over once they “woke up.”

“Pinecones,” I muttered out loud.

That was when it hit me.

I remembered Jade’s comment from a few weeks ago. “Sequoias are known for having their seeds released through their pinecones when temperatures get really hot.”

Like in a fire.

“Gale, is it true that some trees only release their seeds in a fire?” I asked, wondering if that fact I had heard weeks ago was really true.

“Yes, but only certain ones,” Gale replied, looking at me funny. “Some pinecones have resin inside them. That resin will only open up and release seeds if the temperatures get hot enough to melt the resin away.”

“Hot enough, like from a fire?” I asked as I started walking to the edge of the fire where some surviving trees still stood.

She stared at me for a moment, finally understanding where I was going with this. “Yes, especially in a fire.”

“The trees,” I whispered out loud. “What kind of trees, Gale?”

She didn’t reply right away, but I could hear her typing away on her computer.

“A specialized group of trees called serotinous cones are designed to only open and release their seeds during a fire or extreme temperatures,” Gale said, clearly reading it straight from her computer. “This includes jack pines, lodgepole pines, and some species of sequoias.”

I gasped. “That’s it.”

“What is?” Iris asked. “I feel like I’m missing something.”

“The trees!” I repeated. “Lodgepoles and sequoia pinecones only open in fires, and those were the trees all found at the fire origin points!”

“Do you know for sure that those trees were at the point of origin for every single one of the fires?” Gale asked, letting me know she had the same train of thought I had.

“No, but I remember Darren mentioning those names at all the fires because he was sad they were gone, but he said at least the cones would help make more trees in the future…” I trailed off at the end as the pieces started to come together.

“You need to call Jay. I’m with you on this. It looks like these areas were chosen because of the trees.”

Gale’s agreement gave me the confidence boost I needed. Our arsonist intentionally set the fires where they did because they had trees that would only reproduce if the pinecones reached a hot enough temperature to release the seeds. Sequoias were endangered and lodgepole pines were cut down and used for timber, meaning we had been losing a lot of them over the years.

I needed to call Jay and tell him my theory. I also needed to call Jade to have her help me verify my theory.

“Be careful. That big rainstorm is on the way,” Iris said.

I thanked them both and hung up as I made my way over to the tree line where the fire had supposedly started. It was summer, so we still had a couple of hours of daylight left, but it would also get dark quickly if that storm rolled in, so I needed to get my pictures quickly.

Me: Meet me at the point of origin site when you get here. I think I found the motive for the fires!

Me: And I think Darren might be behind it!

I rattled off a few more texts explaining my theory. My phone buzzed as he tried to call me, but I hit ignore because I needed to call Jade first. She, too, had paid attention to the types of trees at each fire, so she would know if they were all serotinous or whatever that name of trees was that had the special heat-release cones.

I called her, and she answered on the second ring.

“Hey Jade,” I said into the phone, breathing heavily as I walked quickly back to the fire site. “I think I know the motive behind the arson fires.”