Unit 1 Fire?

[Red Rabbit]

News media reporting has been less than informative, imo. The fire progession map on inciweb has not been updated in 3 days and the other map shown is even older.

 

Here is a google earth map linked on inciweb that seems more current. http://inciweb.org/incident/2262/

On the right side of the page under "related incident links", click on "Fire Data on Google Earth" When the link opens, look under the continental US map and click on "Fire Detections: Current" to open up the google map. You can zoom in on the Wallow Fire and see the sire spots.

 

Looks like the fire is going north of Crescent Lake, up Escudilla Mtn, and edging west onto the WMAT.

[couesobsession]

This just sickens me, I wish someone would say how much % of the blaze wiped everything out and how much is just undersory and litter.

[couesobsession]

I believe the reason why our forests are burning with such huge crown fires started with the nations policy of complete fire suppression in the early to mid 20th century. Ponderosa pine forests historically burn once every seven or so years with a ground fire that removes branches, needles, leaves, etc... Large crown fire historically occurred every thirty to fifty years, and they were less hot and less destructive than todays fires. The buildup of downed wood I've seen in the Terry Flat area is appalling. Doghair thickets acrooss the evergreen forests of Arizona are another major factor. Now that the forsets are so cluttered, we are going to see major crown fires in almost every forest untill mother nature can restore ballance. it is a sad truth and as things sit fires have to be put out when they have any potential to grow larger. We are the ones who proverbially screwed ourselves over by taking a too serious approach to fire suppresssion and then not a serious enoguh approach in manys cases. Anyways thats my 2 cents

 

Your $0.02 is worth more than that, as opposed to those that wail and gnash their teeth like a bunch of old women, which from what I see is most of this forum.

 

Adios.

 

Biker

 

 

 

Natural fires slowly burn the forest floor thinning out the small thick growth leaving the mature old timber and promoting grass to grow through ash.a fire like the wallow fire is burning everything including the old growth timber.same thing happened with the dude fire and the rodeo fire.the problem with these type of fires is the mature pines are replaced with thickets of oak,scrub,etc. creating an even bigger problem in the future.the dude and rodeo areas are growing back thicker and more dense than

they were before they were wiped out.A drive down the control rd is about as unnatural as you can get.

the rodeo and dude fire did not return the forest back to its natural state and neither will the wallow

fire.

 

 

 

 

I'm not sure if I agree with you. Big nasty wildfires are horrible and I am as sick and saddened as anyone these forests are burning. They won't be the same in our lifetime. But once a forest burns, if anything the grass and brush come up and then the aspens come over them, sheltering the ponderosas to come back. Escudilla was hit with wildfire 50 years ago and yes its thick, but its not oak and scrub, it is, or was, thick aspens stands with baby evergreens and pines lower down, at least where the fire hit. Look at almost any area hit with nasty crown fires in the past fifty years and you see aspens returning, outgrowing the brush, not the other way around. And biker, as glad as i am that someone appreciated my input (everybody deserves to have some) I also disagree wiht your view. There are few if any places in the world where some sort of disaster can't hit you. Saying too bad for you who are affected is a very uncompassionate sentiment. If we were hit with a huge earthquake in the valley or a freak flood would you still say you shoulda seen that one coming?

[ratherbehunting]

I used to fly fire patrols a long long time ago. This is the second big fire in AZ and it should be a huge wakeup call, instead the press and the pols don't get it and we are the laughingstock of the fire business...and yes it is a big business.

 

Without the forestry people pushing for a better air tanker presence in our state, this is what you get. 5 tankers 10 days and 300k acres in is way to little. A fire this big anywhere else would have at least 10 dedicated tankers - the high capacity/rapid refill type too. We have some big lakes 10 minutes flying time to these fires. Of course that costs money and this state has none. Couple that with the eco crowd and their lawsuits and this is what you get.

 

Unfortunately you can never stop idiots with matches or mother nature from starting fires. You can have an active plan and the resources in place to stop them or slow them down fast. If they had 5-10 dedicated tankers (not helos) on this fire from the get go this would not have got out of control like it did.

 

I can remember flying in and out of PHX on the Rodeo - one of the main airline arrivals was over that mess at the time - and looking down and seeing the tankers showing up only at the peak of the fire and it was like throwing a bucket of water on a raging 6 alarm warehouse fire. Too little - too late.

 

I was flying with one of my buddies who also flew tankers way back when and we both reminisced on how fire bosses like fires to get bigger before putting anyone on them. More dollars for their budgets I guess.

 

The sad part is when people and their homes get caught in this forest fire mess.