HikeArizona.COM

https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/7438/

Commence your freakout. Might burn the mountain, might not.

I saw the large smoke plume yesterday around 5 PM in a Satellite image but figured it was so large that it must have been a cloud shield. Nope.

Haunted Fire forward rate of spread was stopped at approximately 25-30 acres.
A new start on San Carlos called the Bottoms Fire is kicking up smoke in the Globe tricities area.

Haunted fire has big bad plume visible from Safford!

@cactuscat
My interpretation of the post by Tonto NF is that the plume visible today is from the new Bottoms Fire.

@chumley
Oh, yeah - guess you're right! Either way, it is impressive for a brand-new fire!

@Jim_H Lightning over the Ancha! Uh oh…

@ALMAL
Are you commencing a freak out?

This is from a facebook post about 30 minutes ago from the Tonto National Forest:
Tonto National Forest Cave Creek Ranger District fire resources are responding to multiple lightening fires in and near the Mazatzal Wilderness Area. Fires are currently burning in rough, inaccessible and broken terrain. Some of the fires are currently receiving rain.

I certainly hope the fires darken.

Lightning has an “e” now?

@00blackout
Back to your comment about the possible cause of Telegraph ...
https://www.12news.com/mobile/article/n ... 8279404d44

As the article notes, hikers have seen jets fly much lower than 11,700 feet in the area. I myself saw one flying in Devils canyon well below the tops of surrounding mountains — which of course doesn’t mean they were on that day.

But if a flare burns hotter than a jet engine, it really doesn’t matter if it is supposed to burn out by 3000agl. When it hits the ground it’ll still be hotter than that catalytic converter under your car that is known to light dry grass on fire. And there was plenty of dry grass out there at the time.

With state and federal leadership currently from opposing political parties, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the state sue the feds to recoup costs. Except that most of what burned was federal land and fought by federally funded crews so it might not matter.

Let’s just let this set in for a moment. At a time when we were on the verge of being locked out of our forest, because it was too dangerous to be in them, the feds were conducting training exercises over a tinder box.
with flares they describe as burning hotter than jet fuel.

Honestly, just bring a bolt cutter with you this weekend and let yourself into whatever forest you want, it doesn’t matter at this point and the feds just lost their credibility. Social contract theory, when the government fails us, we have the right to tell them to F off.

In case anyone was wondering what kind of asshat would build a campfire under current conditions, please allow me to present Exhibit A:

@andrewp Whether the person is being honest or not is certainly up for debate, but not everybody who posts a photo does so the same day they take it. I have plenty of photos of camping and campfires and if I post one today it doesn't make me an asshat (plenty of other things about me take care of that )

@chumley

Sigh... you're right. I didn't catch any of the comments and assumed that it was recent.

@cactuscat
;)

Good news is the Haunted Fire has been knocked down and held to around 60 acres. I'm pretty sure because of the mine right is the reason that they jumped on it pretty quick. Lightning caused.

Two new starts last night. One just to the south of the base of Montana Mt. off 650 and the other one just west of the Horrell Ranch. Lightning caused. On a side note FS wrote some trespassing tickets yesterday for some dumb asses going around the barricade at First Water. SMFH

@joebartels
What a crap map! I put some landmarks on a zoomed in version for those who want more detail.