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Named the "East Desert Fire" just north of the Cave Creek Regional Park. The smoke is very bad at our home now. Hope they get a handle on this
https://ktar.com/story/3164884/fire-in- ... 500-acres/

@LosDosSloFolks
Sad this is just the beginning. I hear there was a fire outside of Payson today as well so sad.

@LosDosSloFolks according to the story, this was another human caused fire. #sad

It looks like 40 homes have been evacuated: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/6712/

I haven’t seen any sort of verification from reliable sources, but some online comments from residents of that area indicate the fire was accidentally started by an elderly man clearing weeds from his yard with a weed eater. If that’s the really the case, it just sounds like incredibly bad luck as I would assume he’s cleared weeds from his yard plenty of times in the past without incident. Hopefully property loss can be kept to a minimum for the folks living up there.

@LindaAnn
IF, IF, IF someone was using a gas powered weed eater without a spark arrestor and started a fire, I'd say that it was more a case of bad judgment instead of bad luck.

One of our friends lives in that area and the fire is only a mile from their house. Watching this very nervously.

Update from Cave Creek... We received a recorded robo-call from town Marshal Adam Stein last night @ 11pm citing a MANDATORY evacuation for anyone getting the call. We were told to report to the Town Hall where the Red Cross would be to help relocate us. We had been on our patio watching the flames advance over the tops of the mountains just to our west but they were still 2 to 3 miles away and had yet to cross Rancho Manana Golf Course and jump the creek towards us.
We opted to take a short 'wait and see' while we discussed what belongings to save and to start loading in the cars for the big skedaddle out of town. A seemingly nonstop string of fire trucks were heading north on CC Road with sirens blaring. Right about the moment we agreed that possibly they knew something that we didn't a second call came from the Marshal fine tuning the evacuation zone NOT to include our property.
Needless to say, we didn't sleep well. The fire has laid down this morning but has grown to over 1500 acres. Still lots of smoke and high winds are predicted for later today and tomorrow. The fire WAS human caused. We heard it started in a work shed but who knows for certain at this point. LosDosSloFolksOut

https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/6712

RowdyandMe wrote: ↑May 17 2020 7:40 pm @LosDosSloFolks
I hear there was a fire outside of Payson today as well so sad.

I saw a news report that said there was a fire on 87 near 188; this one was human caused also

@LosDosSloFolks
I saw all the smoke from it last evening winding up my MC ride. I was on Dove Valley Pkwy. I was wondering if Spur Cross was burning up, or even Cave Creek itself. I figured you'd post the scoop here.

It's 9:10 am and we have a front row seat on our patio watching the air tankers doing drop after drop on the fire. Looks like water and not retardant.

@LosDosSloFolks That’s the plane that flew low over our house a few hours ago. Orange and white, DC 10? Wonder where they go to pick up water?

@Sun_Ray
It appears there are about 8 aircraft (helicopter and fixed wing) working the fire. The fixed wing aircraft are making their stop at Mesa Gateway Airport (KIWA/AZA). It appears it takes about half an hour to do a drop flight.
https://www.flightradar24.com/data/airc ... x#248598dd

Sun_Ray wrote:Wonder where they go to pick up water?

I've heard public pools have been donating their water to fight fires in order to STAY AFLOAT during these trying times.

@wildwesthikes
I'd pay big bucks to see a DC-10 pick up water from a public pool.

@wildwesthikes
The helicopters generally use lakes and sometimes the pool water you mentioned. The big tanker planes are a different story! I've been watching the drops today and it's been a mix between water drops and other planes dropping the red retardant.

There is a base in Winslow, so perhaps there or another location closer to the Valley?

I imagine the Helicopters are using Horseshoe and Bartlett Lakes. Or sucking up golf balls on the nearest golf course water traps. I can just hear the Pilots now. FORE!

@outdoor_lover
Like the CSI episode of the scuba diver getting golf balls and being sucked up and dropped on a fire. Yeah it could happen.

@Alston_Neal
I watched only one episode of that show and it happened to be that one!

@Alston_Neal
@LosDosSloFolks
Omg, are you serious? Hahahaha, I haven't seen that one! Is that the original CSI?