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Wallow Fire – The End Will Come — Why Now?
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Wallow Fire – The End Will Come

by Bryan

Wallow FireThey have made the shift to dealing with the aftermath of the fire and have already started some of the necessary work. Personnel numbers are slowly decreasing, and people are returning to the area.

Information from the current Wallow Fire InciWeb Page

  • Date Started: 5/29/2011
  • Location: Apache, Navajo, Graham, and Greenlee Counties, San Carlos and White Mountain Apache Reservations, Arizona; Catron County, New Mexico
  • Cause: Human – under investigation
  • Size: 527,774 acres [825 miles² 2136 km²] based on infrared data
  • Percent Contained: 56%
  • Injuries to Date: 12
  • Residences: 1,551 threatened; 32 destroyed; 5 damaged
  • Commercial Property: 162 threatened; 4 destroyed
  • Outbuildings: 452 threatened; 36 destroyed; 1 damaged
  • Other: 1 truck destroyed
  • Number of Personnel: Approximately 3,483 including 11 hotshot crews and 50 hand crews
  • Equipment: 19 dozers, 202 engines, 73 watertenders
  • Aircraft: 15 helicopters, 5 air tankers
  • Incident Commander: Jim Loach, Area Command Team 3

The weather today will be sunny with a high near 81. Localized southwest up-canyon winds will influence the fire today with peak gusts between 12 and 15 mph. There will be some areas of smoke before 11am.

Last night’s infrared flight showed that there was scattered heat from the southwest flank into the area of the Stray Horse Work Center. On the southern flank the fire has crossed Raspberry Creek about a half mile to the south and continues into Crooks Mesa and McKittrick Creek. In the Cedar Springs area there was a lot of heat and growth. The fire has not crossed the FS 281 road but is a half mile from Blue Camp. The fire on the eastern flank in N.M. northwest of Luna, moved some to the northwest but did not move any closer to the Tucson Electric Power distribution lines.

Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) Team members will continue working in the fire area today evaluating damage and beginning the planning process for mitigation. They will be evaluating soil and vegetation impacts. To learn more about BAER Teams, go to these sites: http://tinyurl.com/6xd42mf , http://tinyurl.com/5v9p2h5

Power has been fully restored to Reserve and Luna, N.M. and in Alpine and Nutrioso, AZ. Power remains out in areas north of the Blue River.

Firefighters are continuing mop-up and fireline repair activities throughout the fire. With lighter winds, crews were able to make good progress and safely access areas of the fire that have been inaccessible due to high winds and dangerous snags. Rehabilitation activities include using chippers to treat the slash that was created by fireline construction operations.

Crews have completed construction of control lines on the south end of the fire between McBride Canyon and Highway 191. Burnout operations have begun north of this line and will continue as conditions allow. Seeding of repaired firelines has been completed on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation.

[For the latest information click on the Fire symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Fires” for all of the posts related to wildfires on this site.]