Wallow Wild Fire in Arizona Consumes Precious Backcountry. And It's Still Going

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by Mark Stephens on Mon Jun 6, 2011 - (4) Comments


Video via zanewatts on Youtube

As of today, the Wallow Wildfire in eastern Arizona has burned over 200,000 300,000 400,000 500,000 acres and it's still going. The big cloud you see in this video is the smoke rising from the forest near Alpine, Arizona. It's amazing in the holy-shit-that-makes-my-stomach-drop sense. Right now, officials believe that the fire started from an abandoned campfire.

<taps foot>

So, please tell me that I'm preaching to the choir when I say, hey, be cool and learn to put out your campfire properlike.

Two years ago, we hiked to the summit of Escudilla Mountain, which is Arizona's third tallest peak at 10,912 feet. As I type this, flames of the Wallow Wildfire are moving up Escudilla's slopes. Families have already lost their homes, and others are praying their homes will be spared. This is bad stuff. Very bad stuff.

Here are some of my photos from the area, just so you get a sense of things.

elk and aspen trees pine trees escudilla wallow fire area arizona

escudilla mountain hiking before the Wallow Wildfire arizona

greer lodge wallow fire arizona

Wallow Fire Wildfire arizona escudill mountain

escudilla mountain wallow wildfire arizona

Comments   

 
Ernie Ruiz
0 # Ernie Ruiz 2011-06-14 10:49
It is so sad that this has happened. Truely a beautiful place lost to carelessness. A massive loss to our beautiful state. Great photos.....
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Mark
0 # Mark 2011-06-14 20:48
It's crazy! It's now burned 469,000 acres. Apache-Sitgreav es national forest is all of 2,630,000 acres.
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Jason
+1 # Jason 2011-06-14 20:48
We hiked Escudilla about 2 years ago also! It's so sad to think that beatiful mountain will not be the same within my or probably even my kids' lifetime.
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Joe
+1 # Joe 2011-06-14 21:19
This is so sad, I understand the natural wildfires caused by lightning strikes, but this one was 100% preventable. I saw a sign that summed it up pretty clear "Think you can't camp without a campfire? Try camping without a forest". We were up on the fire tower at Aztec Peak Saturday and you could see the smoke from there.
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