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mike
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Joined: 30 Dec 2002
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 Posted: 6/29/2005, 10:27 pm Post subject: Parts of I-17 to close as firefighters battle fires |
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| azcentral.com wrote: |
Parts of I-17 to close as firefighters battle north Valley blazes
Judi Villa and Emily Bittner
The Arizona Republic
Jun. 29, 2005 10:19 PM
Fire managers plan to close Interstate 17 intermittently for the next several days while they try to stop the "Cave Creek Complex" fire from reaching Black Canyon City, now seven miles west of the blaze.
Crews plan to use up to three miles of the freeway between New River and Black Canyon City as a containment line to halt the fire's westward spread. They began setting burnouts Wednesday and anticipate the smoke will reduce visibility along the freeway.
"There will be an unavoidable necessity to close the 17 at times," said Dave Killebrew, a spokesman for the Tonto National Forest. "The smoke from it could be a factor into Friday and even possibly later."
Traffic headed north to the high country for the holiday weekend will almost certainly be affected, he said.
"It could happen just about any time, it just depends on the smoke conditions," he said.
Many of the closures will be at night or early in the morning, as firefighters work beside the freeway.
The Department of Public Safety has been monitoring the fire since it started.
"They tell us what they need," said Officer Frank Valenzuela, a DPS spokesman. "We evaluate it and make it happen. If there's a threat to human life or property, obviously that raises the stakes."
No evacuations are planned.
From outside the Javelina Crossing Saloon in Black Canyon City, general manager Paul Brenkert could smell the smoke in the air and see the plume on the horizon.
"I have been through two Malibu fires," said Brenkert, who used to live in Topanga, Calif., and was part of an emergency response team there.
"I know porridge well what fire can do and how fast it can move. I look at this and I am concerned. Not panicked but concerned."
On the fire's north side, where officials worried the unchecked blaze could reach Pine and Strawberry, "we didn't get a whole lot of growth," said Emily Garber, of the Tonto National Forest.
"It did not move much last night," Garber said. "That was a good thing."
The fire still was about 25 miles from the two mountain towns and would have to jump the flowing Verde River to get there. Flames also could be stymied by burnout from last summer's "Willow" fire, which swept through parts of the Mazatzal Wilderness southwest of Payson, although that blaze did leave some mountainous areas untouched.
The lightning-sparked "Cave Creek Complex" fire has morphed to 173,000 acres since it started June 21.
The southern portion of the fire, which initially threatened hundreds of homes and accounts for about 167,000 acres, was about 40 percent contained, Killebrew said.
The northern portion is not at all contained.
Most of the fire growth came from burnout operations to protect Black Canyon City, he said.
On Wednesday, firefighters monitored the north end of the blaze by air and focused efforts on building containment lines a mile east of Black Canyon City.
The blaze has crested the New River Mountains, where officials had planned to suppress it.
On Wednesday, it was crawling down the west side of the mountain, and firefighters were burning out what they hoped would be a containment line south from Bloody Basin Road, along a 69 KV power line.
"It's moving downhill right now," Garber said. "Fires typically move downhill very slowly. Our hope is that we get a good line drawn these next few days."
Fourteen helicopters, 73 engines and nearly 1,600 people are working the blaze. Two Type 1 teams are managing the northern and southern halves of the fire.
The "Cave Creek Complex" fire has grown to the second-largest wildfire in recent Arizona memory, consuming 11 homes in Camp Creek and scorching the world's largest cactus near Horseshoe Lake.
The "Rodeo-Chediski" fire that began in June 2002, was the state's largest and most devastating blaze, scorching 460,182 acres from the White Mountains to Heber on the Mogollon Rim.
Brenkert said he isn't planning to evacuate his home on a hill on the eastern side of Black Canyon City, but "this morning when I got up, I had a whole nose-full of smoke."
"I'll be honest," he said. "I've gathered my jewelry and pictures just in case I've got to high-tail it."
He doesn't expect it to come to that:
"We've got great faith in our firefighters." |
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0629Wildfires29-ON.html
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Hikngrl
Canyoneering is my 'Happy Place'
Joined: 27 May 2003
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Location: Peoria, AZ
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| Posted: 6/30/2005, 6:48 am Post subject: |
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That's what we saw on our way home last night?
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mike
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| Posted: 6/30/2005, 7:19 am Post subject: |
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Probably. Where were you when you saw it?
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Hikngrl
Canyoneering is my 'Happy Place'
Joined: 27 May 2003
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Location: Peoria, AZ
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| Posted: 6/30/2005, 7:36 am Post subject: |
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Out on I 17 coming home from Willow Valley around Black Canyon City or so. The smoke was visible for most of the way home. It is covering a huge area. The flames weren't visible till we got closer to BCC.
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mike
What box?
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| Posted: 6/30/2005, 8:34 am Post subject: |
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Most likely the flames you saw were from the containment line they were burnng east of BCC.
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Hikngrl
Canyoneering is my 'Happy Place'
Joined: 27 May 2003
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Location: Peoria, AZ
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| Posted: 6/30/2005, 9:02 am Post subject: |
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AHHHH.... 
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