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 ]

[DixieFlyer]

Do they have leads on who started this?

Who knows, but apparently there isn't much of a penalty for this type of thing. The largest fire in AZ history was the Wallow Fire in 2011, which burned 538,000 acres. The 2 people who started that fire each received 48 hours of jail time and 5 years of probation -- that was the extent of the penalty.

[Tough_Boots]

but apparently there isn't much of a penalty for this type of thing.

The guy that started Rodeo-Chedeski did 9 years of a 10 year sentence. Of course, that was actual arson and not just negligence or accident.

[kelly14]

Absolutely devastating. I wonder if there’s any hope that in the higher elevation areas and moist canyons the fire might burn at a lower intensity/ more mosaic pattern?

[montrose6250]

From community meeting in Roosevelt today: 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 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. The fire has made its 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. The Roosevelt Ranger said 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 its movement. It is making its way down La Barge Canyon to Charlebois and is moving into Boulder Canyon. On the south side the fire is sitting on top of Buzzard's 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. They did say the fire will not be out until the monsoons arrive and they are predicting a later than normal start this season, looking like the end of July. We could be potentially be seeing 75% or more of the Superstition Wilderness burn in this fire. It's beyond devastating.

[AK]

Do they have leads on who started this?

Who knows, but apparently there isn't much of a penalty for this type of thing. The largest fire in AZ history was the Wallow Fire in 2011, which burned 538,000 acres. The 2 people who started that fire each received 48 hours of jail time and 5 years of probation -- that was the extent of the penalty.

If anything after jail, they should be given community service to help rehab the area, help rebuild trails after the inevitable erosion, so that they can see what their actions caused.

[DbleDutch]

probably not fully in my lifetime.

Yes, desert/mountains recover slowly if at all. Sad to hear it may destroy Reavis Ranch and orchard.

[chumley]

The 2 people who started that fire each received 48 hours of jail time and 5 years of probation -- that was the extent of the penalty

Not that it really matters, but they were also slapped with $3.7 million in restitution, of which they are each paying $500/month (for life, because it would take over 300 years to reach the amount they owe).

https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2012/11 ... stitution/

[AZLumberjack]

Here's a link to what appears to be a satellite view of the Woodbury Fire. 2019-06-16
https://apps.sentinel-hub.com/sentinel- ... ates=false

[pixelfrog]

I think the person who did this should be put to death, is that too harsh?

[whereveriroam]

Look at the Matzatzal’s to see what the post fire recovery will look like. They looked similar to the Superstitions before the Willow fire. I’ve hiked with people who didn’t believe me that there was once a pine forest on top.

[LindaAnn]

The Superstitions will be just fine. Yes, it sucks that the fire was most likely caused by a careless person, but there are no indications that it was malicious. I think whoever started it, if they’re ever caught, should face restitution, jail time, whatever the precedent is for punishment for starting other wildfires. Maybe they should even face a lifetime ban from national forest and wilderness areas. And yes, it sucks that some unique and special areas may be lost and changed forever. I’ve lived in the valley for 39 years and I’ve seen wildfires on almost every mountain range surrounding the area. They’ve all recovered. Sometimes a little differently than before, sometimes you couldn’t even tell after a few years. The Superstitions will recover too. Some things may be different, but the mountain will still be there and things will come back in their own way.

[chumley]

The official progression map was just posted on inciweb. Though occasionally interesting, I personally find the infrared maps to be wildly inaccurate and misleading.

https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/photos/AZTNF/2 ... 2-CDT.jpeg

[AK]

Well sh****t! That doesn't look promising. View from NE Mesa.

[DarthStiller]

Looking today from Fountain Hills looks like the biggest smoke plume I've seen since it started. The latest date on the progression of that map seems to show in areas that I recall as having more forested area (?), although not completely sure.

[AK]

@DarthStiller
Kinda what I was thinking.

[tibber]

I've been watching the air activity via this link: https://www.flightradar24.com/N261GB/20eec145 When you click on the plane above the Supes, in this case, N261GB you can see his flight pattern... very cool. and right now there are two helos up too.

I assume someone has posted this link which I find easy to follow once you zoom in. https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/6382? ... bo-bCG7i7A

[AK]

I've been watching the air activity via this link: https://www.flightradar24.com/N261GB/20eec145 When you click on the plane above the Supes, in this case, N261GB you can see his flight pattern... very cool

Yea he is a King Air lead plane. The tankers will follow him in and he'll mark the drop area with a short trail of white smoke from an engine to mark the location for the drop.

[hondah35]

There is nothing they can do within the wilderness area, the Wilderness Act basically says it has to be left to burn, and even if they changed policy for this fire, no fire manager is going to try and suppress it on the wilderness with basically zero roads. This is why there is zero containment because the wilderness area is so large and they can only burnout from the perimeter. So the Superstitions are at the hands of the heat and winds as to where the fire will burn.

[DixieFlyer]

The official progression map was just posted on inciweb.

on the west side, unfortunately it looks like it is getting close to Malapais Mtn, Bluff Spring Mtn, and Miners Needle

[hondah35]

The Superstitions will be just fine. Yes, it sucks that the fire was most likely caused by a careless person, but there are no indications that it was malicious. I think whoever started it, if they’re ever caught, should face restitution, jail time, whatever the precedent is for punishment for starting other wildfires. Maybe they should even face a lifetime ban from national forest and wilderness areas. And yes, it sucks that some unique and special areas may be lost and changed forever. I’ve lived in the valley for 39 years and I’ve seen wildfires on almost every mountain range surrounding the area. They’ve all recovered. Sometimes a little differently than before, sometimes you couldn’t even tell after a few years. The Superstitions will recover too. Some things may be different, but the mountain will still be there and things will come back in their own way.

I'm not quite sure which areas affected by fire over the last 30+ years have recovered, unless by recovered you mean major loss of original vegetation type. Most of the major state fire complexes, Dude, Lone, Coon, Horseshoe 1 & 2, Monument, Lane, Battle, Willow, Edge, etc, etc, have not come back anywhere near what they were before and show no signs of doing so. I still hold out hope for Rodeo-Chediski and Wallow.