The Greer Fire

[azbackpackr]

"All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go..."

Living in Eagar again, I'm in the direct path of the Greer Fire, which started yesterday, May 13, in the morning. It has now burned down through some of the old Wallow Fire area, crossing the creek and trail at South Fork. News says that some structures have burned.

Originally they said it was caused by an electrical transformer, but Navapache Electric Coop came back hard with this statement: "Regarding the following statement from the Greer Fire District, "Cause: Believed to be a damaged electrical transformer, damaged by high winds" Navopache Electric Cooperative (NEC) would like to clarify this misleading statement. After being notified of the fire, NEC was dispatched, and the area was deenergized. Upon inspection, we were unable to locate any damage to our transformers, which could have indicated a failure and possible origin of the fire. The cause of the fire is still under investigation."

I guess they don't want any lawsuits.

I've followed a lot of pages, both local and not, and still think inciweb has the best info. https://inciweb.wildfire.gov/incident-i ... greer-fire

As for evacuating, I'm currently about a mile east of the area deemed as "Set." Greer, South Fork and Northwoods have already been evac'd. As for where these folks are to go, they were first told Round Valley High School in Eagar, but when it was seen that the fire is heading directly toward Eagar, and is only about 6 miles away, they decided to send the folks to St. Johns High School instead.

Meanwhile, I'm going to sit tight. I can see the smoke out my window. Yesterday it looked scary, but today not so much. I've heard they have a top notch team fighting it.

Just got a loud alarm on my phone that they have closed 261, the highway from Eagar to Big Lake. 260 is already closed. Map attachment is the perimeter yesterday evening. It's bigger now. Check inciweb. Photo is from River Road, yesterday afternoon, on the edge of town, near the defunct golf course.

Am I scared? Who me? Nah. On social media, though, all my friends are ordering me to pack up and leave! I am mostly packed up, can load the car in a few minutes. If I decide to take the RV, it would take at least an hour to make it drivable, and I'm gambling I won't have to.

[Grimey]

Stay safe! Hopefully this one gets knocked down pretty quickly.

[Jim]

Looks dead in the satellite image this morning.

[azbackpackr]

@Jim
I've got the NASA up. The inciweb map has not been updated for about 48 hours. The fire crossed Hwy 261 up near Mexican Hay Lake. The fire followed the path of the South Fork Trail. It burned quickly through the Wallow Fire burn, which is full of downed timber, brush and grass.

Yesterday I took photos out at Lyman Lake of the CL 415 Super Scooper planes, but I didn't pay to get into the state park so that I could see them actually scooping.

The area half a block south of me is on "Set" status, south of 260. I'm just north of 260/Central Ave. in Eagar. About a mile or so from here begins the "Go" area. West of River Road and south of 260 is "Go." (We have friends who decided to stay put. Probably a lot of people did that.) The wind has died, they have 400 people on the fire, and there will be 6 aircraft today, from what I hear. They got this. I'm not worried about it, but it certainly is interesting.

It's also too smoky to do my daily bike ride. Yuck!

A bunch of fire and police depts from the Valley have sent vehicles and people here. One thing they are doing is patrolling all night for looters in the Go areas. This is appreciated.

One of the photos is a CL 415 at Lyman Lake, flying away with a full load of water. The other photo is from the top of cemetery hill in Springerville yesterday afternoon.

NASA page: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/ma ... .07,14.00z

[Jim]

Yeah, I couldn't really tell, and you guys are 3 hours behind where I am. I should be clear and say that the smoke plume was not noticeable.

[azbackpackr]

@Jim
I'm not looking at the smoke plume imagery, but at the heat detection. It's on the NASA link in my post.

It's not a real big fire. It's just that it potentially threatens a lot of people's homes, ranches and businesses.

[Grimey]

Smoke plume is pretty large on the latest sat photos, extends well into NM. The one for the fire near Happy Jack is pretty large as well, although it doesn't seem like that active of a fire.

[azbackpackr]

Lots of aircraft on it now, and 400 personnel. Not windy this morning.

We are in the part of Eagar that is not yet in Set or Go status.

[Jim]

I bet the range is nice and fresh this summer after the rain comes. Somewhere in there is transitions from gramma to fescue. Both should be lush by August.

[Alston_Neal]

@Grimey
Can you link me to the Happy Jack fire?

[Grimey]

@Alston_Neal
Chumley posted about it in the main 2025 thread. The "Blind Fire".

[Jim]

That kind of smoke plume visible from space is what I was talking about the other day. I am also familiar with the nasa heat maps. Those plumes are decent, but not as good as the one from a few days back.

[azbackpackr]

Fire is pretty much out. Evac orders are being lifted.

It appears to me from public presentations that more than half of listed acreage is from backburning. They cleared out a lot of the old deadfall from the Wallow Fire ahead of this burn to keep it from jumping the lines. The was a red flag forecast yesterday, and the fire didn't grow. It should turn out to be beneficial in the long run.

[Jim]

Post some photos

[azbackpackr]

@Jim
If I get around to it. I have a few of the smoke and helicopters I need to organize. Really not very interesting, just some smoke on the horizon. We drove out to the Greer junction today. The backburning they did all along 260 between 261 and the Greer road is spectacular. It's solid black for a few miles, but not much tree kill. It's mostly grasslands out there, with scattered Ponderosas and junipers. Saw several of the resident bighorns by the highway at their favorite water tank. Should be a pretty good recovery from most of this fire. Hoping we have the wet summer that is forecast.

[Jim]

I'll PM you.

[ShatteredArm]

My family has a cabin in the Northwoods area which my great grandfather built, so we were definitely paying attention to this one. It seems the high winds helped it spread fast, but also kept it on the ground, and kept it from spreading up the hill. Will be interesting to see how the Greer Lakes area looks after this.