Sunflower Fire

[chumley]

Sunflower Fire 2012 - Perimeter Map

Firefighter friend posted a video of a new fire that began this morning near Sunflower, south of Payson. They've got two air tankers on it already, so hopefully they get it under control today. With the warm weather coming next week, it will be tougher to fight. Appears to be kicking up quite a bit of smoke.

Besides my friend's video, the only "official" news I could find is here:
( dead link removed )

[Nighthiker]

Several other fires reported today as well including a fire NNE of Globe. Also observed an air tanker heading to Willaims Gateway about noon flying south from the north. The air tanker looked like a DC4 did not know they were still using them.

[big_load]

Sunflower, south of Payson

There was a fire burning near Sycamore Canyon Rd. and the exit for Mt. Ord right next to 87. Is this the one? I drove by it around 4:00 this afternoon. That exit was closed and it looked like the police hadn't been there long. They were still just setting up.

[Grasshopper]

by big_load » May 12 2012 6:48 pm

chumley wrote:Sunflower, south of Payson


There was a fire burning near Sycamore Canyon Rd. and the exit for Mt. Ord right next to 87. Is this the one?

Yes, this is the one.. Trish and I were up on Rim Rd FR300 today about 4pm and saw the large smoke plume all the way from the Rim back down Hwy 87. When we approached the Sycamore Divide area at Hwy 87/Mt. Ord Road, I turned around and had a quick glimpse of the fire area as of 6pm. I looked down into the area where FR201 continues up to intersect FR25 and there were numerous fire hot spots in that whole lower canyon section. The entrance roads off Hwy 87 were closed to local traffic. That lower area off FR25 on the way to the Mormon Grove TH is popular with campers on the weekends..

[big_load]

Trish and I were up on Rim Rd FR300 today about 4pm

I missed you by a bit. I went in on the Rim Road this morning to hike in Dane Canyon, but I came out on FR96/95. That was a lot easier on my poor rental car.

[chumley]

First of all, it's a rental car.... Who cares?

Secondly, it's now over 1,000 acres. From azcentral:

Crews are working to put out a 1,000 acre fire in Tonto National Forest.

The Sunflower Fire was reported at 10:25 a.m. Saturday in an area about 21 miles south of Payson. Officials said smoke from the fire is visible in Phoenix.

Two helicopters, four air tankers and six engines have been committed to the fire. Five hotshot crews from Geronimo, Payson and Flagstaff are working on it.

The cause of the fire was not immediately available.

And just curiously... Anybody wanna tell me where Geronimo is? Apparently they have a fire department!?

Edit: I think it's whispering pines fd, which is up Houston Mesa toward webber creek, and the bsc camp Geronimo. That makes slightly more sense?

[Trishness]

Trish and I were up on Rim Rd FR300 today about 4pm

I missed you by a bit. I went in on the Rim Road this morning to hike in Dane Canyon, but I came out on FR96/95. That was a lot easier on my poor rental car.

Yep, we probably missed you on FR 300 by 30 mins or so. Driving down the Beeline it was hard to tell where all the smoke was coming from but as Hank said, once we got just past the Mt Ord turnoff....there it was. I was too busy watching the road but Hank said there appeared to be many hot spots down in that area. Hope they can get this under control fast! The Mazzy's don't need another huge blaze.

[chumley]

It can only burn south or up mt. ord. Everything else in the area has burned recently. There's no fuel in other directions. They seem concerned though with the resources put on it in the first several hours today.

[Al_HikesAZ]

And just curiously... Anybody wanna tell me where Geronimo is? Apparently they have a fire department!?\

1) I think Geronimo is east of Globe between Bylas and Safford. San Carlos Apache. They probably field a HotShot crew but don't have a Fire Department. And the HotShot crew could have been in Globe or pre-positioned by Roosevelt. But you could be correct too about Whispering Pines.
2) Geronimo is with Elvis. We will hopefully get the truth in Men In Black 3 due in the Theaters soon.

I saw the column from this fire as I was driving east on 260 from Cottonwood to Camp Verde. Thanks for the info. Looked ugly.

[Nighthiker]

2500 acres as of 830am (sunday) law enforcement were looking for hikers and campers to evacuate and a Type 2 Incident team will take over command later today.

[burntlizard]

I live in North Phoenix and can see two columns of smoke, very concerning. The Forest service must act NOW!! put the fire restrictions in force.. Let's pretend that everyone is stupid and cannot extinguish their fires, let's face it, that is very plausible, look at last Memorial weekend. We lost 1/2 million precious acres.

[rwstorm]

Fire restrictions should have been in place already, especially given the dryness. Every year it's the same old song and dance. They rarely put them in place before Memorial Day; wouldn't want to mess with anyone's precious holiday traditions, now would they? I realize that restrictions alone don't mean some folks won't cheat (or worse yet be deliberate pyros), but it establishes the proper awareness/mindset.

[chumley]

I just flew in over sunflower. Long active lines on 3 fronts. Looks like it could take a while to get this one under control.

[mazatzal]

It can only burn south or up mt. ord. Everything else in the area has burned recently. There's no fuel in other directions. They seem concerned though with the resources put on it in the first several hours today.

Yes, mostly true but it could burn west, northwest or north and torch Little Saddle Mtn, West Fork Sycamore Creek, McFarland canyon... which escaped Willow fire.

[burntlizard]

I agree 100% with RW, same thing every year.

[Jim_H]

I've made the argument for annual restrictions before, but was this a lightning started fire? We had storms the other day, and regardless of the ignition source, we need greater amounts of fire in the wild lands, with earlier fire being easier to take than later fire when it is hotter and drier.

[Jim_H]

@Toughboots Yes, it grew that fast. I live south of Carefree Hwy and I could see a small plume this morning, I assume the Westerlies kicked in this afternoon and it took off. The storms over the Bradshaw's produced little rain on Thursday, thus I feel it was campfire or some other human activity.

There is no link between rain and lightning. It is more likely that these storms you mention started a lightning fire if they were dry, but I would like to know what the evidence seems to indicate rather than purely blaming humans and ending up in another campers are careless-fire bad-we need restrictions threads.

[Grasshopper]

fire crews Sunday were working:
The Sunflower Fire 21 miles south of Payson in the Tonto National Forest, which by Sunday evening had spread to more than 2,700 acres, despite a large air and ground offensive.

More than 280 firefighters battled the fire, west of Arizona 87. The fire's growth was attributed to rugged terrain, dry fuels and drought conditions. The active blaze ran to the east-northeast as firefighters worked to anchor it to the south and conducted burnouts west of Forest Road 201. The fire ignited Saturday morning and while it threatens no structures, firefighters are concerned about a power line southeast of it. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

"It has definitely grown," said David Albo, Tonto forest spokesman.

The billowing fire sent smoke plumes into the sky that were seen in Phoenix and which obscured visibility on nearby Arizona 87, officials said.

Five hotshot crews, six engines, six air tankers and two helicopters from Geronimo, Payson and Flagstaff were among companies deployed to fight the Sunflower Fire.

[mazatzal]

@Jim_H No way these are weather related. No lightening in this area.

[burntlizard]

@Jim_H I was just tying in the fact that in this part of the valley the lightning was South of here and the Bradshaw's received a small amount of storm activity, not to plausible for lightning type fire.

Past events and logic say's humans! (not the human race, just someone who was careless) I'll be interested to see the facts.