Fire in the Santa Ritas

[Trishness]

There is a major fire burning in the Santa Rita Mountains 35 miles south of Tucson in the Coronado National Forest that is threatening Madera Canyon. This fire started as a lightening strike on July 7th or 8th and had grown to 20,000 acres since then. It's about 40% contained as of today.

For those of you who have hiked in the Santa Ritas and Mt Wrightson....these areas are all toasted. As far as I know, Madera Canyon has been spared so far but the fire is very close to the cabins, lodges and summer home there.

Here's a link to the fire and maps.

http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/coronado/florida/

I was just in Madera Canyon in June and it became a "special place" for me. I'm have reservations again for September so we'll see how things have changed.

[big_load]

In response to Trishness' reply:

Very sad . So many places have burned before I could get to them. I had hoped to visit Mt. Wrightson last fall. I might have to wait a while.

[joebartels]

Man that's worse than I thought.

At first thought 20,000 acres, I think roughly 32 square miles... yeah that's sad.
But then look at those maps... ouch
It's wiped out nearly half of the wilderness. It's already taken out Wrightson peak and now it's coming down towards Madera.

5.4 MILLION DOLLARS!
What do you think the fire spread would be like without a penny spent?
100% gone?

[Trishness]

It's now 22,000 acres, 50% contained and a cost of 6.2 million. I think if there was no intervention from the firefighters it would be 100% gone so a lot of credit needs to go to these men and women who fight these natural disasters. I was fortunate to have been in Madera before the fire in early June so I have pictures of how beautiful it was. It will take decades for this area to recover if it ever does.

[Nighthiker]

The rain was a little help but not much. Flame lengths and heat release was quite severe.

[courteol]

Hello to all. Sadly, the reality is that the 8 million dollars spent was a waste. The heroic fire fighters did what they were told. But the threats of lawsuits for preventative treatment in the fire zone, the fear of the USFS to do what needed to be done, and the archaic fire-fighting methods all played a role in the fires destructiveness.