BUSH FIRE EVENING UPDATE: The Bush Fire started at approximately 2:00 pm today, near the intersection of Bush Hwy and Hwy 87. The fire is estimated to be 600 acres, and burning to the north towards the Sugarloaf Recreation area along the southbound lanes of Hwy 87. The fire has crossed Hwy 87 to the east and is now burning along Four Peaks Road. There is no containment at this time.
Currently there are 9 engines, 2 hotshot crews and 4 airtankers assigned to the fire. Three additional crews and multiple engines have been ordered, and are responding to the fire. Firefighters are working to hold the fire on the west side of Hwy 87, and are building containment lines and using firing operations to suppress the fire.
Hwy 87 is currently closed in both directions at the FS RD 143, which is the road to Four Peaks and Sugarloaf. At this time, Lower Sycamore Canyon, Sugarloaf Recreation area and Four Peaks Recreation area are closed. The Bush Fire is currently under investigation. Law enforcement personnel are conducting sweeps of the closure areas to safely escort members of public out of the fire area. No structures are threatened at this time and no injuries have been reported.
TLDR: 87 is closed at 4 peaks road and you will have to go through globe to get to payson
Edit: Now the reroute through globe is no longer viable, access between payson and phoenix is via camp verde
Edit2: Fire has been contained and the highways reopened, thanks to the firefighter crews.
Last edited by nonot on Jun 28 2020 11:43 am, edited 2 times in total.
Hike Arizona it is full of sharp, pointy, ankle-twisting, HAZmaster crushing ROCKS!!
Hike Arizona it is full of sharp, pointy, shin-stabbing, skin-shredding plants!
Hike Arizona it is full of striking, biting, stabbing, venomous wildlife!
A good thing I guess that we have all these fire resources already working nearby fires as they used crews from the Bush fire to stop the Central Fire and just today the Dome Fire.
Big wind event forecasted with some areas of AZ forecasted to get 50mph gusts this week.
The Dome Fire, 38 acres, started in the Bulldog Canyon OHV area at 2:00pm today. Fire Resources from the Mesa Ranger District, with assistance from resources on the Bush Fire, were successful in their efforts to contain the human caused fire, which began as a result of a UTV accident. Aerial resources were also used to suppress the fire, including two single engine air tankers dropping retardant, and 2 Type 1 helicopters. The Dome Fire's active spread was due to the winds and extremely dry fuels.
cw50must wrote:Wasn't there a few structures about 1/3 of the way up?
Yes. There are some folks who we met in person last year who live there year-round, and based on what we saw from the other side of 87 yesterday their home MAY have been saved but without driving/hiking up FR 626 it's impossible to say.
There is another dwelling farther up (which I believe is not always occupied) which is on the NE slope so no idea about that either.
@CannondaleKid
NW slope? It was not occupied last year when we hiked past it. It's made out of an old container, so it should have survived depending on how hot it got there.
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."
Dave Barry
@The_Eagle
Are you referring to the building/container up the short road from FR 626/FR 27 intersection? (Which I would characterize as the NE ridge of Ord anyway)
33.924392 -111.403335
Or the buildings just north and below the FR 626/FR 1688 intersection? (Owned I believe by the folks Tracey and I met last year)
33.923618 -111.414425
BTW, I last visited that spot before there was a container but I have since heard someone was making it habitable for short-term anyway, possibly a base for hunting??
@The_Eagle
The much larger dwelling(s) is/are further down FR 626, where Mark said "just north and below the FR 626/FR 1688 intersection". I hope their place survived.
I was in Flag yesterday, and drove back to the Valley via Lake Mary Road and Highway 87. The lower part of Ord was really torched around the Slate Creek TH -- it looked really bad. As I was driving I glanced up toward the summit and it looked ok, but it looked to me like the burned area was well over 1/2 way up to the summit from Highway 87. Further south, the Ballantine TH got hit pretty hard also. About 4 miles or so north of Bush Highway, there was a burned area to the west of 87. I did not see anything burned right at Bush Highway and 87 though.
Civilization is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there
@Grasshopper Thanks Hank! Looks like they used 626 as a fire line and saved the forest up there. Maybe all those control burns on Ord’s summit over the years paid off.
"…you never know when a hike might break out" -Jim Gaffigan
With the north slopes of Mt. Ord completely torched, I would not be at all surprised to see monsoon flooding into Slate Creek cause damage to the Beeline Highway. There are two culverts that cross under the highway, and I wonder if they are engineered to survive the amount of mud and debris that will flow as a result of the fire. If a storm drops 3+ inches of rain on that mountain the results could be devastating, similar to what happened in the Superstitions last year.
I'm not sure what my spirit animal is, but I'm confident it has rabies.
I'd agree that where Slate Creek intersects 87 near the "Gold Tooth Smith Spring" drainage is an area of concern this monsoon season. It crosses under and back and the culvert system doesn't appear designed to carry high volume of debris, from my armchair quarterback view.
I think 87 on the Sycamore Creek side would be much better off...they've been dealing with the spring-caused landslides over the past decade and have basically reconstructed it enough times that I think it's in much better shape. There is one small unnamed drainage between Kitty Joe and Colcord canyons that appears to have potential for causing some slight mudslide issues.
We might petition Joe to slap a DANGER label on the Sycamore creek hike/float guide for the next 3 years. I wouldn't want to be there anytime it rains in the area.
Hike Arizona it is full of sharp, pointy, ankle-twisting, HAZmaster crushing ROCKS!!
Hike Arizona it is full of sharp, pointy, shin-stabbing, skin-shredding plants!
Hike Arizona it is full of striking, biting, stabbing, venomous wildlife!
@chumley
We drove up and back on 87 to Payson this morning to survey the damage. It was not a "scenic drive". In reference to your post, we witnessed three crews with 10-15 trucks each, all with a metal stake bed trailer cleaning out from under the culverts and cutting back the vegetation in most of the washes on the west side of the highway. It appeared to me they were preparing precisely for the scenario you are predicting. There was a lot of manpower deployed.
BAER report news indicated they were cleaning washes as interactive report below appears to indicate an extreme event possible along that entire 15 mile single lane section of Hwy 87 from the 626 road to Hwy 188.
Not too many years ago a Mazzie fire on the opposite side of Slate Creek created a debris flow which impacted Hwy 87 as well as Slate Creek.
Unfortunately the 'Interactive Predictions' link on that page sends you to the Tadpole Fire in NM instead of the Bush Fire.
I tried incrementing the digits at the end of the link but it appears the link which MAY be for the Bush Fire has no data.
Route Editor
Route Scout
Maybe all those control burns on Ord’s summit over the years paid off.
In reference to your post, we witnessed three crews with 10-15 trucks each, all with a metal stake bed trailer cleaning out from under the culverts and cutting back the vegetation in most of the washes on the west side of the highway. It appeared to me they were preparing precisely for the scenario you are predicting. There was a lot of manpower deployed.](./images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall"){kind=small}
