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Photo of the Day

March 30, 2004

Sunlit Smoke, Siberia, Russia, 2001

Photograph by Mark Thiessen

"Sunlit smoke whispers the firefighter's secret: Life can be beautiful even when the world burns down around you. As fire crackles through a forest's understory, clearing brush and preparing the ground for new life, it's hard for even a sworn adversary not to respect its role in the ecosystem. 'Fires are natural,' one smokejumper says, 'but it's our job to fight them.'"

—From "Russian Smokejumpers," August 2002, National Geographic magazine