Tinder Fire

[Nighthiker]

Reported earlier today (4/27), 50 acres at 4pm One Large Sikorsky enroute from Payson Airport and another may arrive at Payson later today. Fire is located East of C. Cragin Reservoir (formerly Blue Ridge) in East Clear Creek.

[Ampaz]

I'd also visit the Forest Service office in Payson on the way there, to let them know my plan, just in case the wind direction changes or some other thing happens. It seems like it would be a good idea to let them know you're in the vicinity.

@amy1300
Thank you SO much for the suggestions! I'll look into that. And really good idea on letting the forest service know where I'm going, especially in these conditions. I'm new to backpacking so it's great to receive suggestions from people on where to go.

[amy1300]

@pixelfrog
Yeah, well it's not like there's a shortage of water at Kinder Crossing, which they could have used to put out their fire, even if they did not know there were restrictions in place. No good excuse for leaving the fire burning, or smoldering, imo.

[Ampaz]

@amy1300
Thank you SO much for the suggestions! I'll look into that. And really good idea on letting the forest service know where I'm going, especially in these conditions. I'm new to backpacking so it's great to receive suggestions from people on where to go.

[big_load]

No good excuse for leaving the fire burning, or smoldering, imo.

I can't remember how many times I've come across campfires that were just left burning, some very close to water, including one that had begun burning into the duff and the roots of a tree.

[amy1300]

https://www.outsideonline.com/2298241/s ... r-wildfire
And another thing to cheer up your day -- apparently people have found that burned areas don't regenerate trees the way they used to, due to climate change. Areas that have burned in the past 20 years or so are especially likely to remain treeless. Small seedlings have greater difficulty surviving drought years, etc, etc..... Wonder how the new trees are doing, up in the Schultz fire area?

[azbackpackr]

@amy1300
I was just up there, walking on the AZT 32 to Schultz Tank. Posted some stuff about it, and several people asked me about it, but basically I didn't notice the planted trees except from a distance. As for areas where none were planted, mostly I didn't see new growth, other than a couple of areas of aspens. One of these areas has been fenced off to protect it from elk. Other places I have hiked where there was a big fire there is an over-abundance of new ponderosa pine growth. I have seen this in the Catalinas. These young trees are all very close together, and likely will burn again sometime.

[Jim]

@amy1300
[ photoset ]

Almost 4 years old, but this was along the road east of Schultz Pass, mostly out by Sunset Crater.

[amy1300]

@Jim_H
Thanks - I drove through the burn area last summer, on FR420, from Schultz Tank to the Lockett Meadow Rd. It still looked much the same as your photoset. There was an area dotted with those white plastic cones, with seedlings. Guess people are still planting a few at a time.

[amy1300]

@Ampaz
Hope all your exams went well. Just now I looked again at the Tinder Fire map, here: http://nifc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/View/i ... 1df5b4bf1d
And I noticed the forest closure has been pulled back away from the Rim Road, and a southern perimeter of the fire seems to have been established. I'd check with the Tonto Forest rangers to be sure, but it looks like maybe you can still do your original plan of Cabin Loop, if you want to.

[Grasshopper]

Coconino National Forest - Mogollon Rim Ranger District

Tinder Fire Closure Order-Effective 5-7-18 & Map.pdf

(906.55 KiB) Downloaded 165 times

[Dschur]

Still waiting for info from the Coconino county but from a news 10 helicopter was able to snatch an image of the cabin and is still standing.. but could still have some damage ... some of the other satellite subdivisions in the area are getting their power turned back on but in Clear Creek Pines 9 we got the hardest hit so probably a few poles down.. there was a message to some from APS saying our area will be back on line on Friday... but first have to have a cabin...

Well we were able to get into the cabin's subdivision this last Friday. Was sad seeing how many around our cabin had theirs totally destroyed. I think we counted6 that we could see from our lots. The fire did come up to the cabin. Burned all around it mostly the needles and ground cover. A few trees big junipers have fallen over because burned up the bottom and roots. We found two hotspots and surprised to find we still have water..so we dumped a lot of water on those poor old juniper trees. The observatory had fire all around it to but is all fine. The back corner of the lot buy the road has quite a few trees pretty scorched think we will lose those trees.. all in all we were lucky but had done some FireWire to the property..the wood pile is still there and the pile of branches that my sister stacked for us are still in a pile. Power, phone and water all work.

[Dschur]

They have issued a "Set" condition for the people of Moqui Ranchettes on the Northeast corner of our community north of us.. this is the new Evac system Ready, Set, Go for emergencies. With the winds being bad today will have to see..

[Dschur]

East Clear Creek Canyon from across the street and you can see how close the fire came..

[tibber]

YIKES, that was close. Glad you and your property are safe so far and that you have your utilities.

Last Saturday, we could see the smoke for much of our hike on Anderson Mesa and we could really smell it at Horse Lake area. It just seemed to keep billowing and then floating across the sky.

[chumley]

The burn severity map has been released.

It looks like ECC upstream of Kinder Crossing is largely unharmed. The ridges on either side of the creek look to have had the most severe burn.

Horse Crossing trail was torched and the east side trails out from both Horse and Kinder appear to have been severely burned.

The creek bottom itself might have escaped severe damage so far. Sadly, summer rains and runoff could make more permanent scars.

[ALMAL]

@chumley
Spared is Victorine Crossing it would appear?

[Sredfield]

A recent observation--if the fire had been 5 miles west the resulting runoff and erosion would likely have damaged Cragin Reservoir to the point that Payson's gazillion dollar waterline project would have been for nothing.

[big_load]

The map made me wonder what the erosion impact will be.