"I still remember the smell of that night. Wet pine, scorched vinyl, and something else—something I couldn’t name until much later. The call came in at 3:14 AM. A structure fire in North Ashland, a quiet little town that hadn’t seen a major incident in years. I wasn’t even supposed to be on duty, but I took the call. Maybe that’s why I was the first one to really see them. It was pitch black when I pulled up to the Wexler residence. Red and blue lights were already flashing against the trees, ca