Woodbury Fire - Superstition Wilderness

[chumley]

Burning near Woodbury Trailhead. It has grown to 500 acres. I'll post official links as soon as they're up.

The smoke plume does not look good.

Inciweb

Updated 2019-07-16 123,875 Acres - 100% Contained
[ Woodbury Fire Perimeter :: map ]

[AZLumberjack]

@AZLumberjack
Thank you! Inciweb does not have good maps up yet.

A big thanks to Susan Harnish (suzaz) she posted this on Facebook.

[Tough_Boots]

They need to pull the trigger on that retardant. Labarge and Whiskey are thick with grass right now.

[AZLumberjack]

Just read a posting on Facebook that the Apache Trail has been shut down from the area where blacktop changes to gravel transition on North. The fire should jump the road sometime tonight.

[DixieFlyer]

From the Superstition Fire and Medical District Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/sfmd.az.gov

"Update on the Woodbury Fire:

Due to operational needs of the fire, Apache Lake and Canyon Lake will be closed until further notice. HWY 88 will be closed at Needle Vista & HWY 88, and on the East Side at HWY 88 and 188. They are not evacuating people that are currently there but are not letting people in.

Lakes that are open are: Saguaro Lake, The Lower Salt River, Roosevelt Lake, Bartlett Lake, and Horseshoe lake. The community of Gold Canyon and Apache Junction are still safe."

[pixelfrog]

It's down in Fish Creek already, damn it! Rapidly approaching Tortilla Flats and Canyon Lake. I'm literally at a loss for words with this.

[hikerdw]

@pixelfrog Your not alone. Sickening.

[Sredfield]

Has anyone seen talk of backfiring from the Apache Trail?

[RickVincent]

Its moving full speed now.

[tibber]

saw this on the FB Supes page: from a Steve Jorgensen 4 hrs

I have a friend who works for the Forest Service. He says they are talking about burning out Hwy 88 from Canyon Lake to Roosevelt to keep the fire from jumping the Salt River to the Four Peaks side.

Jim Lewis:

Backburnes may start this evening ! more resources are landing at Gateway and Sky Harbor, and they are moving people out of the Apache Lake area now ! It's gonna be a now or never real soon to stop this one's forward motion but even so it's going to be weeks before it settles down and current projections are Monsoons are starting later than normal not expecting any in that area till the third week of July....

[DixieFlyer]

I see that the Tonto National Forest has implemented Stage 1 fire restrictions starting tomorrow...too little, too late I'm afraid

https://www.fs.usda.gov/alerts/tonto/al ... ?aid=52969

[trekkin_gecko]

the map jack posted a link for is a good one
the movement to the northwest intrigues me - with prevailing winds from the west, I would think it would grow to the northeast during the day
maybe terrain and fuel sources have something to do with that?
edit: there is some movement to the east and northeast recently

[joebartels]

MODIS & VIIRIS 750m data over 06-11 & 06-13 perimeters
[ Woodbury Fire - Progressive Perimeter :: map ]

[AZLumberjack]

I drove out on Apache Trail at 04:30 this morning (Saturday) and the trail has a manned road block at Needle Vista. First Water Road is CLOSED, I think they have an action center at the horse trailer parking lot. The visible smoke in the mountains has been reduced greatly but there's a lot more to the north, indicating movement towards Apache Trail around the Fish Creek Overlook.

[Tough_Boots]

The incident management team will have a community meeting on Sunday, June 16 at 2:00 p.m. at the Roosevelt Baptist Church located on State Highway 188, Roosevelt, AZ 85545.

[RowdyandMe]

Wow over 26,000 acres with zero containment. I was worried about it growing with the wind we had yesterday.
So sad human caused

[Sredfield]

Heading up the trail over Reavis Saddle, towards the ranch. Heartbreaking!

[AK]

@Sredfield
Yea it looks like we might lose the ranch. The fire is progressing down the trail/valley north towards the ranch. I hope they find the idiot(s) that started this and bankrupt and jail them!

[00blackout]

Just got back from another Woodbury Fire meeting from Roosevelt. The news is not good, in fact I would say it is completely devastating.

To make a long meeting short I will get right to it. Currently 0% containment and over 700 personal working the fire. As of right now they have stopped the northern movement of the fire at highway 88 and the Tortilla TH area due to the back burning that has been done there. They are continuing to back burn moving west towards Tortilla Flat. They have placed a sprinkler system around Tortilla Flat to try and protect it once the fire gets there. Also the owner of Reavis Mountain School (forgot his name) spoke for a minute and he is working with a crew to clear brush around the school area. Now the devastating news. Due to the extreme steepness of the terrain in the majority of the fire area they are unable to get crews on the ground to fight it. They also are not able to use air support without a crew on the ground in the area, apparently they work together. With that said the plan right now is to unfortunately let it burn until it moves closer to 88 on the east side and north side and comes off the cliffs on the west side. They have planned points on the east side on where they can start fighting it and are waiting for it to burn it's way through Reavis Canyon, Campaign Creek , Fish Creek.

I have included the latest fire map. As you can see the fire has made it's way up Reavis Saddle and is closing in on the ranch. They advised that it took a couple days for it to move on the east side as the manzanita was so thick it did not want to burn originally, however it has dried out the past couple days and they expect the fire to start to accelerate through the Reavis area. I have circled the fire on the east side in pink coming up the saddle with the Ranch and Roger's Canyon Cliff Dwellings circled in green. After the meeting I spoke to the Roosevelt Ranger one on one and they are fully expecting the fire to take the Reavis ranch area including the orchards and are hoping the Rogers Canyon Cliff Dwellings survive the fire due to their height in the canyon.

On the West side, they are also expecting it to continue it's movement and you can see on the map today the fire has now moved into Barks Canyon and is making it's way down La Barge Canyon to Charlebois and is moving into Boulder Canyon (circled in pink). On the south side the fire is sitting on top of Buzzards Roost where they may drop some water on it to stop that piece of the fire. The remaining south side end has been cold for a couple days (black line).

They did say the fire will not be out until the monsoons arrive and they are predicting a later then normal start this season, looking like the end of July.

I think that's about all that I can remember. Like I said beyond devastating news as we could be potentially watching 75% or more of the Superstition Wilderness burn in this fire. Like a lot of people here the Superstition are more then just a wilderness to me and words absolutely can not express how I am currently feeling.

[tibber]

This is just awful news but thanks for your thoughtful update, sad as it is.

[AK]

Thanks for that update. Just unbelievable. Gutting news to hear that my favorite hiking area will soon be charred. Reavis will eventually recover but probably not fully in my lifetime.

Do they have leads on who started this?