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And so it begins....The Secret Fire...Luckily this was addressed quickly...We are seriously going to be paying for our Dry Winter....

http://azdailysun.com/news/local/high-w ... 963f4.html

Smoke plume is forecast to affect the Tularosa Basin today. With reported 0% containment it might be a decent one. Reduced winds, though, so probably not massive growth.

Anyone noticed that fire up on the Natac Rim?

http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/photographs/3871/

The Skunk, as it is known, is pretty good in size, and with low and moderate behavior, a nice fire to have even in a dry year. 18,000 acres, and it should get larger. I think it was responsible for the Basin's smoke out today, but I don't mind. Caused by lightning.

"Fire weather" forecast here in Williams and all over N. AZ starting tomorrow, according to the weather service. I'm a little puzzled by their forecast, because today they have a red flag warning, very windy, 77 degrees with gusts forecast up to 40 mph. Tomorrow it's supposed to be very slightly cooler and very slightly less windy. So, why do they not have the Fire Weather Watch starting today? They show it as starting tomorrow at 11 a.m.

fire near woods canyon lake
not a good scenario for the holiday weekend

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/ari ... n/9399529/

The Badger Fire on I-17 is 90% Contained and is not expected to grow. It's a Mop Up Crew now. 487 Acres started by an RV that caught Fire and then it's Propane Tank exploded....
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/ari ... k/9345117/

trekkin gecko wrote:not a good scenario for the holiday weekend

A better scenario would be to completely close the forests - Tight - Keep all the cigarette smoking, campfire building, "those rukes don't apply to me" idiots at home and let them burn their own backyards...

Sorry, I have no sympathy or understanding for anyone who could be so friggin' ignorant about their fragile surroundings. Last year I almost went to blows with an idiot smoking a cigarette in West Fork when the restrictions were in place. He got pi ss ed when I told him he had no right to burn down cabins in the area (my relatives' cabin being one of them) and demanded he put it out, and he got even more PO'd when I made him pick up the butt that he threw down without even crushing it to make sure it was out... ARGHHH...!! :tt: [-X

paulhubbard wrote:A better scenario would be to completely close the forests - Tight - Keep all the cigarette smoking, campfire building, "those rukes don't apply to me" idiots at home and let them burn their own backyards...

Same comment I made in a different thread!

Okay, it's now about 6 a.m. here in Williams. The smoke, which had been blowing over Flag and dropping ashes, has settled overnight right on top of us here. The weather has cooled off a lot, 34 degrees here, and it is supposed to only be 66 today, with possible showers. These showers are supposed to carry on through several days. That might help the firefighters, but the wind is also supposed to kick up again, out of the south. That will blow the smoke away from here, but later this evening it's supposed to pick up and move around to the SE, which will blow the smoke over this way. I'm going to Lee's Ferry this afternoon, so I won't see what happens until Friday night. I'm glad I am not leading any tours at Grand Canyon today, because I suspect the air quality and views are going to be very poor.

Update on the Woods Canyon Lake fire from the Blue Ridge Office:

We just spoke to Black Mesa Ranger District, Apache Sitgreaves National Forest, who is managing the fire at Woods Canyon Lake. Here is the information they gave us:

· Currently 88 acres
· One helicopter, 1 Hotshot Crew, 3 engines, 2 dozers, and 1 Type 2 crew are currently assigned to the fire.
· All campgrounds are open
· Be aware of fire traffic on Highway 260 and Forest Road 105
· There is a barricade at Forest Road 195, temporarily in use for fire parking.

Significant progress was made yesterday with the use of water drops by the helicopter, calmer winds and slight increase in RH will help aid firefighters today. At this time, this is all the information that I have.

Sounds like they are not terribly concerned about it and/or have a handle on things.

chumley wrote:Sounds like they are not terribly concerned about it and/or have a handle on things.

Finally a silver lining in all of this doom and gloom.

hippiepunkpirate wrote:Finally a silver lining in all of this doom and gloom.

Enjoy every little silver lining we get. Meanwhile, hang on to your reins and saddle horn, this is going to be one wild and woolly ride this summer.

The smoke was very thick at Lees Ferry, where I spent last night. Early in the morning the forecast "scattered" rain began. It was very scattered, but there are clouds building up. By the time I got back to Flag there were a lot of big cumulus clouds building. Tomorrow and Sunday there is a 40% chance of thunderstorms. This could put a damper on the fire, but dry lightning could cause more fires to start.

So we'll see. And if there is a lot of lightning this weekend, just please remember how to spell it.......................

azbackpackr wrote:So we'll see. And if there is a lot of lightning this weekend, just please remember how to spell it.........

lightening . . . by morning and darkening by night ;)

http://www.nps.gov/grca/parknews/galaha ... canyon.htm

http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/3883/

Part of why I like the park service. In the days before settlers, a fire like this could burn clear across the plateau.

@Jim_H

Your post got me using the google machine, I found some interesting fires and sizes that really put into perspective the insignificance of some recent wild fires, although, "insignificant" is probably not a popular word to use right now for the people impacted by the Slide fire..

For example, in 1871 Michigan had a forest fire that was responsible for killing over 200 people and burning 1 million acres.

Wisconsin had a forest fire in that same year that killed 1500 people and burned 3.8 million acres, meanwhile, while that was going on another fire raged in the sparsely populated Upper Peninsula of Michigan destroying as much as 23 million acres!

The Bear Wallow and Rodeo fires still take number one and two honors for largest in SW..

More recently, Russia seems to have taken the lead with a series of forest fires in Siberia destroying over 27 million acres of land! A good nat-geo read is the article from about ten years ago about Russian "smoke jumpers" talk about a different breed of men...I guess from article they spend most of their time partially drunk from regular vodka air-drops, however, I guess you cant find many better fire fighters for the limited resources they have available...

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/weathe ... ld-history

Too much to copy and past, but a good link, very interesting...

Largest currently active fire in the US is the Funny River Fire.
Kenai , Alaska
183,295 acres (30% contained) Believed to be Human caused
It started 5/19, the day before the Slide Fire

It has been plugged here before, but Timothy Egan's book, The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America, is a great read on the topic.

Mesquite Fire on AZ 87 which occurred last week you can observe what a slurry drop from a DC 10 did when traveling Northbound on AZ 87. The fire was moving upslope when the slurry was dropped, fire progress halted.

The Kaibab National Forest is taking additional steps to reduce the risk of preventable human-caused fires.
As of Friday (June 6) at 8 a.m. the North Kaibab Ranger District will enter campfire and smoking restrictions,
and the Williams Ranger District will close the Bill Williams Mountain Watershed to public entry.
http://www.fs.usda.gov/kaibab

The Eagle wrote:The Kaibab National Forest is taking additional steps to reduce the risk of preventable human-caused fires.
As of Friday (June 6) at 8 a.m. the North Kaibab Ranger District will enter campfire and smoking restrictions,
and the Williams Ranger District will close the Bill Williams Mountain Watershed to public entry.
http://www.fs.usda.gov/kaibab

I didn't see a thing on those pages about closing BW Mountain to public entry. This is of interest, since I can see the edge of that mountain from where I'm sitting right now. Where did you see it?