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I was clicking around, looking for a map of the Dude Fire, due to reading about the planned Highline renovation, and found the Dude Fire AAR. It is a literally minute-by-minute account of the fire from the time it started, until late evening on June 26, 1990. The events involving the Perryville deployment start on page 43. Fascinating reading, but not for the squeemish: http://www.fireleadership.gov/toolbox/s ... s_2009.pdf

And a memorial video put together by one the firefighters who barely escaped the fire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mEVDY9tPQk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaV5WKgKVH0

12:00 : "There was information out there and not getting to people should be a hint that then don't send them out there. Put a road block down at the hill and let this place go."

Dave LaTour, the Perryville Crew Superintendent, speaks from 16:50 to 25:30.

Recent in-depth article. Shameful the way the state & federal government treated the survivors' families ...

http://www.thebigroundtable.com/stories/burn/

Thanks for posting that, great article and looks like quite a website.

Yeah, I had to bookmark it. I ended up reading several of the articles ...

I think people forget that there were 6 firefighter deaths here in all the other anniversaries of fire deaths....Was 14 years ago yesterday that they lost their lives...

Dschur wrote:I think people forget that there were 6 firefighter deaths here in all the other anniversaries of fire deaths....Was 14 years ago yesterday that they lost their lives...

interesting that the anniversaries are so close together and the area they fought the fires was so close too. Thx for reminding us.

@Dschur Thanx for mentioning it. I know I was thinking about it yesterday. Sometimes easy to forget previous tragedies in light of more recent ones ...

@kingsnake
http://hikearizona.com/photo=351069

Visited the deployment site this past week, a review of the information on the weather, terrain and operations will provide a very sobering understanding of the tragedy.

@Nighthiker The odd thing is, it is really more of a ditch than a "canyon". (Unlike Granite Mountain, which had only steep terrain with dense brush around them.) The Dude Fire must have blown up so quick that even getting up Walk Moore Canyon's small slopes was too much ...

If you look up the info on the fire you will a better understanding of the terrain including vegetation, weather and fire attack And yes the area of the deployment site is what I would also describe as a gulch.

25th anniversary today.