Arizona wildfires

They said on last nights news that the fire was 6 miles from cordes junction but the fire fighters were confident they could contain it.
They are organizing evacuation plans if it is necessary.
We are along the flight path of the slurry planes that are reloading at Prescott airport. The planes are flying more frequent today.
 

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Ray,

Good picture. That's about what we see from the south side of the fire when it's clear here, and we are, what, some 70 miles south of you?? Occasionally the wind blows down here and all we see is dark skies. Are you getting any of the smoke over your area yet?
 
We have been fortunate that the wind has been blowing the smoke eastward.
The wind had shifted last Wendsday and we did get quite a bit of smoke, but it cleared the next day.
I just tried to get a photo of the flames at night but they didn't turn out.
 
LiveSteamer said:
In a way the fires are a good thing because it gets rid of the dead wildlife and helps create new wild life. That's why the rangers and a brush fire crew go out in the summer and burn off the dead wildlife in certain areas, but keep it under control, to make room for new wildlife. But there were them times when it got out of control and it turned into a forest fire. I just hope all of the Firefighters and everyone who is helping stay's safe.
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That is true for most places, but doubtful in the dessert. The damage done to the dessert in a fire will probably take 200-300 years to errase. You can go to the dessert in So Cal, and still see the tracks left by Patton's tank crews in practice for WWII.
 
You are right Russ, there are still ruts from the wagon trains as they passed through the desert some 150 years ago. They sometimes do controlled burns in the forests to thin out the undergrowth and to reduce the fire hazards, but never in the desert. They are saying that the desert many never recover from this fire. One example of this is the world's tallest saguaro cactus has been burned in this fire and probably won't survive. It is 46' tall and is some 200 years old. They are showing pictures of the fire and you can see many tall saguaro cacti outlined by the fire and smoke, like some errie apparitions.

Trees reseed themselves after a fire, that's mother nature's way of doing things, but she has not provided the same for the desert plantlife. After a fire in the tall pines, people will help mother nature by planting tree seedings, no one will do this in the desert, no one...
 
Just a quick update. Yesterday and today the winds were in the firefighter's favor. They were from the west and light. No dry thunderstorms either. They lit backfires around the town of Black Canyon City and basically saved the town and so far have not had to shut down the Interstate heading north. The fire is now up to 230,000 acres and is 40% contained on the south and only 5% on the north. Being on the south end, we haven't seen much smoke today, but Ray is to the north, and it should still be about what his picture looks like, maybe a bit denser and blacker today.

The firefighters are starting to get control now, so things are starting to look up. :thumb:
 
We went to Orme yesterday,(one exit north of Cordes Jt. on I-17) to pick up a group of students and transport them to the Frontiers day parade and rodeo.
This is a photo taken from Rt 69 about a mile from Cordes Jt at about 6:00 AM.
 

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This photo was taken from I-17 heading south at Cordes Jt. as we were returning home from Orme about 6:00 PM.
We no longer see flames to the southeast at night either.
It looks as though the fire fighters made great progress and have the upper hand at this end.
 

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Great pix Ray, pity it`s a desaster, that is being played out, and recorded.
I know from bush fires here that mother nature takes years to recover from the effects, of bush fires. We can only hope that no lives are lost in the bargin, hope all in the area stay safe and well....have a good one..steve
 
Seems as if the firefighters are now in control. Backfires have saved Black Canyon City to the west and the towns of Strawberry and Pine are no longer thretened to the east. It has now consumed about 245,000 acres and is 75% contained to the south and 30% to the north. There were 11 homes distroyed in the early days of the fire, none since then and no serious injuries reported.
 
Well, they're starting to get closer to home. The big one is fully out, 250,000 acres worth. But I'm watching the local news on TV just now and they break in with yet another new fire, just north of where we live. They shut down traffic on the BNSF since the fire is right up to the tracks right now. Fortunately it is away from the dense residential areas, but the smoke is getting a bit thick and is blackening the sky and I know that there are some homes nearby.
 
Looks like the sky is looking better today, so they must have the fire out, or at least under control. This is about the eight major brush fire within a few miles of us since last month. Some as big as a few thousand acres, some just a couple of hundred. It's getting to be a common sight to see smoke billowing up somewhere in the distance. This one was about four miles from our house, but there are many houses and golf courses between the fire and us, so I wasn't thinking we'd be evacuating anytime.:rolleyes: They can fight these local fires a lot better since they are easy to get to quickly, and there are usually air tankers close by. I imagine by now that they've opened the BNSF rails.:thumb::thumb:

Just an update. Who knows, maybe someday, a hundred years from now, a historian will come across this thread and appreciate it's historical significants and detail.:wave::D:wave::D
 
LiveSteamer said:
Glad to hear things are looking better out there. :wave: :thumb: :thumb:
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Thank you Matthew, but as we were driving home just a few mintues ago, we could see the fire trucks on their way to yet another good sized flair up just about a mile north of the one last night. It is still a sparcly populated area, but there are some homes and ranches in that area. We know some folks that live out that way, so I hope they get a quick handle on things.

The thermometer on our truck said it was 116. It's starting to get hot around here.
 
The culprit

A quote from today's local Daily News-Sun:

"A brush fire burned 250 acres near Happy Valley Road and Grand Avenue Tuesday, possibly caused by sparks thrown from a passing freight train. Surprise Fire Department received a call around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday from a passerby who said they saw multiple brush fires burning near the railroad tracks at Happy Valley and Grand. Fire departments from Surprise, Sun City West, Sun City, Peoria, Glendale, Phoenix, Wittmann and Buckeye contained the rapidly growing blaze. "We were concerned at some point that it would jump to 163rd Avenue and we would have to start evacuations," said Surprise Fire Department's Assistant Fire Chief Kevin Pool. Occupied residential areas as well as new construction for KB Home's Desert Oasis subdivision are just across the road from the blaze."
 
Well folks, they're not letting up. We had one a week ago just south of us. Our subdivision was separated fromt the fires only by a street and a grocery store. On Tuesday, I went on a service call on the Apache Indian Reservation, and on the way back, the smoke west of US60 near Miami was getting thick. That section of highway is now closed. And here's the latest from Foxnews.com:
PUNKIN CENTER, Ariz. — A wildfire that has charred 38,000 acres in central Arizona jumped a highway Friday where firefighters were hoping to contain it, forcing the evacuation of a handful of homes in the tiny rural community of Sunflower. The evacuations in Sunflower, which has about 15 homes, were in addition to others requested in more populated areas Thursday because of the same fire.

"No structures have been lost to this point," said Jim Whittington, a spokesman for the crews fighting the fire. "We're going to have our hands full."

Sunflower is about 40 miles northeast of Phoenix.

About 150 homes were evacuated previously after the blaze came within 2 miles of Punkin Center, firefighters said. Firefighters built lines with bulldozers and by hand Thursday to protect the city and the area of the Tonto National Forest.

Arizona firefighters also battled a 10,450-acre fire 15 miles northeast of Wickenburg in the Bradshaw Mountains. That blaze was 5 percent contained, said George Taylor, a spokesman for the team fighting the fire.
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Ray Marinaccio lives on the other side of those Bradshaws.
 
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