Wallow Fire

From what family and friends are saying this fire has been all over the news in the US and abroad. 2nd largest fire in AZ history maybe the 1st largest now, I don't know. Reserve, our home ranger district, is only a few miles away from one of the many ugly heads of this massive fire. We jumped at the opportunity to keep the Wallow fire from burning into New Mexico. Two of the small towns close to Reserve had to be evacuated. The air up at Negrito fire base is still hazy with the smoke from Wallow. The views from the 180 road I've been driving to AZ for years are now forever changed.
Stopping a large fire like this requires stepping back aways from the fires head. In this case several miles in front. We could barely see the fire off in the distance most of the time. Growing mid day into a huge column of smoke. The crew plugged along constructing fire line to be burned off as the main fire approached. At this point we heard our division is getting some of the most active fire of the Wallow. Then due to high winds we retreated from our spike camp several miles down the indirect line. Taking all our overnight gear with us since helicopters couldn't fly. An extra 45-60 pounds on top of our saws/tools and line gear packs. I got a great picture of Josh looking like a Sherpa with all his gear on. During the hike I heard humming of the song from the Scottish band The Proclaimers. "If I could walk five thousand miles..." Finally on the second to last day we saw fire. Our attempt to stop the beast failed and sent us running. We waited out the fire in a smokey safety zone. Then hot footed it to clean air where we racked our brains for the words to the Beatles song "Yesterday". A weeks worth of work burned up. Leave plan B for next roll we have mandatory days off.

Whats a safety zone? Basically its like a snow day in elementary school. The fire picks up to the point where you can't work safely anymore so you wait it out.

Erin got her picture taken by the media and they liked it some much it got posted all over camp and the internet. Erin, you owe us all beer pay up.

R&R days in brief. Cat fishing with Burg on the Frisco. Waters a bit to low from the drought this year. Perfect weather for some swimming.