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Just looked up from our front patio and saw smoke and a new fire on top of Black Mesa just north of Cave Creek. With binoculars the burn is clearly visible coming over the rim and working it's way down the south slope. I looked online and was unable to find any info at all. Hopefully I'll see some helicopters doing some drops soon as we sure don't need it to spread down into Spur Cross.

Four hours have passed and with nightfall the flames are very evident with the naked eye on top of Black Mesa and creeping down the southeastern slope towards Spur Cross and the creek. I made a call earlier and firefighters are aware and fighting it on the ground. They referred to it as the New River Fire even though that doesn't seem accurate as a descriptive name. No air drops as of yet. Fingers crossed they can stop this thing before too much is damaged.

LosDosSloFolks wrote:They referred to it as the New River Fire even though that doesn't seem accurate as a descriptive name.

Isn't Black Mesa pretty small and just off New River Mesa which is much larger?

no page on inciweb, just a boundary labeled
"River" 2,170.824 acres as of 9/5/19, 2:00 AM

@rcorfman
Joe has just posted a boundary map of the fire on this forum. Apparently the fire extends much farther north (towards New River) than what I can see from my home. Black Mesa is connected to New River Mesa at the southern end with a saddle. The flames I am seeing are south of what is shown on the map boundary.

@rcorfman @joebartels
Update...the fire and smoke plume has now spread much farther north towards Little Grapevine Canyon. Lots of smoke at my home. They need to do some air drops, pronto. It appears they have little to no containment as it is growing quickly.

LosDosSloFolks wrote:Black Mesa is connected to New River Mesa at the southern end with a saddle.

Yep, I've been up Black Mesa and over the saddle: [ triplog ] . I've been on New River Mesa a couple of other times too, once from the 41 near West Point and another up the road from the NE side of the mesa. Not a lot up there. Hopefully not too much will burn up.

I'm curious, do the top of these mesas look anything like those near I-17 and Sunset Point? I'm not familiar with this area at all, but being nearby and similar in elevation, I thought perhaps they had that similar desert scrub vegetation of exotic oak grass that turns golden yellow by Summer and some other shrubs. A lot of the area between sunset Point and highway 69 has had small fires this year.

@rcorfman
That's a real slog , either from Rondo Spring or from Ringneck Spring (252) to the east. My hopes are that the fire stays on top and doesn't work down into Spur Cross.

@Jim_H
The mesas have more cacti and scrub than the Sunset Point area. Of course this year EVERYWHERE has a lot of grass. Two threads up @rcorfman has a link with a few photos.

Find photos
Plan > Map > Zoom to area that fascinates > Options > Photos
[ Upper Roost Vicinity - Dry Riverless ... :: map ]

@joebartels
What can't this site do??

@LosDosSloFolks
Put out fires