Bighorn Fire

[SpiderLegs]

Pulled out of my driveway and noticed the orange glow in the pre-dawn hour coming from Pusch Ridge. Then drove down the block and noticed the same glow coming from the Tortolita's.

The fire in the Pusch Ridge Wilderness is below Bighorn Peak and doesn't appear to be hitting Pusch Peak or the Cleaver yet. Luckily it's not windy this morning or we could have a huge mess on our hands.

Over in the Tortolita's as best as I can figure it looks like the fire is at the very end of the Wild Burro trail near where it intersects with the Ridgeline trail.

Last news report I saw was that the Pusch Ridge fire is being monitored and can't be accessed due to the terrain. Our local fire crews are all over in the Tortolita's working on it.

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2020-06-29 Changed Subject from Two Fires In NW Tucson to Bighorn Fire since the other was contained long ago and did not affect hiking much if any.

https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/6741/

[SpiderLegs]

I can see Pusch Peak and Big Horn Peak from my driveway and from my backyard I have a fairly clean shot up to the ski area meadow. Appears pretty quiet on both areas the past two days. Looks like the fire is hitting Ventana Canyon and heading towards Oracle right now.

Drove as close to Pima Canyon as they would allow yesterday. From what I could see, the lower half of the entrance looks good. The fire made it down to the first big ridge, but I couldn't see well enough to see what the damage was.

[rwstorm]

@azbackpackr
Ditch the rumors and get real information. Bighorn Fire Info page of Facebook is giving lots of reports, plus you can watch a live briefing every evening, complete with Q&A.

[azbackpackr]

@rwstorm
I had forgotten about that page, thanks! The inciweb map every day has been helpful, though. Shows all the trails, so I know what I'm looking at.

[rwstorm]

@azbackpackr
There is also a similar Facebook page for the Bush Fire.

[FOTG]

@rwstorm

Did you ever imagine you would be telling someone to log on to Facebook to get the real news, the apocalypse is officially here, the horsemen are riding,

[rwstorm]

@friendofThundergod
lol. It is directly associated with the team working the fires, not some BS site.

[chumley]

@friendofThundergod
There are a lot of pages on FB that are run by the official agency in charge of something. An unfortunate fact of life for a lot of organizations is that it's incredibly inexpensive and very easy for any employee to use FB to disseminate information quickly and efficiently including pictures and video, even live streams.

To do that on an official agency website requires a dedicated webmaster with knowledge of programming, plus an expensive hosting plan that is constantly in need of updates, security, etc. etc.

But yes, you still need to know who's running the page you're looking at on FB because there are a ton of "fake" pages (reply to this post to win a free ticket on American Airlines ), and of course -- my personal favorite -- the people who gossip on every post with what their best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who said something and pretend is fact (It's true, Ferris passed out at 31 Flavors last night).

Information is great. But you need to be wary of accuracy and bias regardless of the platform you get it from.

[Jim]

Ferris did what!?!! I saw him yesterday afternoon. He seemed fine. He was a the ballpark with his friends, they had a day off.

[nonot]

The Tortolita Fire is listed as 100% contained, unfortunately Bighorn is proving more problematic. But that's still some good news. 1 down, 1 to go.

[SpiderLegs]

The Tortolita Fire is listed as 100% contained, unfortunately Bighorn is proving more problematic. But that's still some good news. 1 down, 1 to go.

I chatted with the trail steward for the Tortolita Preserve earlier this week. The fire was nowhere near the park and in fact, you can't even see the burn area from the park. So one bright spot in all this, all the trails at the Tortolita Preserve are in great shape and untouched by fire.

[azbackpackr]

I just heard from a couple of friends in Tucson saying the smoke is the worst they've ever seen it. One friend has lived there 65 years and has never seen anything like it.

[SpiderLegs]

I just heard from a couple of friends in Tucson saying the smoke is the worst they've ever seen it. One friend has lived there 65 years and has never seen anything like it.

To make matters worse on my side of town, there was a big mulch fire right off of Ina and I-10 today. Pretty much nowhere to escape the smoke. It's really affecting me, haven't been able to take an unassisted(without the aid of allergy meds, inhaler or "Breath Easy" tea) deep breath in over a week.

[azbackpackr]

@SpiderLegs
Oh, ugh, sounds nasty! Hope it (and you) get better soon!

[RedRoxx44]

Notice how containment keeps going down; was at 40% now at 16%. Type 1 team coming in today I guess, I thought there already was a team like that on this fire, but it was a Type 2?? Seems like they already did the lions share of work protecting Summerhaven and working on the fire breaks in a lot of areas. Haven't had much issues with smoke in the south but it's been pretty heavy in Tucson last several days esp it seems.

[rwstorm]

@RedRoxx44
Type 1 team has been there for 2 weeks, but after 14 days they are required to turn it over to another team and get some rest. Today is the day the new team takes over. Northern Rockies team takes over tonight. Community briefing at 8 PM.
https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/article/6741/52154/

[chumley]

I read that the containment percentage went down due to more accurate mapping, not a result of fire actually being less contained. Though that's a huge chunk of % just on mapping!

[azbackpackr]

@chumley
Kinda makes you go "hmmm!!??" doesn't it?

[RedRoxx44]

Now magically at 33% containment. Mark Twain is widely attributed, but he did not originate, the statement " there are lies, damn lies, and statistics"

[Jim]

Have any of you people looked at the map of the fire? You don't happen to notice anything about it when you do, if you do.

[RedRoxx44]

Yes, of course, it changes. My comment is a general statement at how information changes in what at times seems a willy nilly way. IMO best to make no statement than to make several statements that seem to be a bit disjointed. Most people aren't going to look at every nuance. And even if they do they are not used to the data and may not know how to process it. Look at this virus debacle. Not related but a virologist interview ( one of millions it seems) I felt respect for. This man actually told his interviewer " we don't know" to about half the questions. Rather than extrapolate he let it be known that they are still figuring it out. It doesn't mean ignorance, it means we are still looking at information.