Big Smoke from the Horseshoe Fire

Firefighters contending with the Horseshoe Fire achieved 25% containment when water drops were successful in stopping the fire's advance across the upper South Fork drainage.

Today's huge plume of smoke (the biggest yet seen during this fire) resulted from the fire's run upslope in the southwest portion of the burn, away from Portal and away from South Fork Canyon.

Smoke plume from Portal-Paradise junction

(Photo by Barbara Miller)

Plume of smoke visible from near the Rustler-Barfoot Junction;

old Rattlesnake burn is in the foreground.

(Photos by Narca)

The fire crews are reorganizing today and by the end of the day should have decided what type of crew to leave behind to continue to monitor and to play cat-and-mouse with the Horseshoe Fire, until the monsoon rains come and finally extinguish it. The Type 1 team which has headed the effort until now is needed elsewhere, especially in Alaska and Canada, where warm and dry conditions are creating the worst fire season ever seen in the boreal forest. Just yesterday, 1300 new fires started in Canada! Concern is even being expressed for the survival of the entire boreal forest ecosystem, as global warming continues to create such fire-susceptible conditions in a habitat that is not fire-adapted. The need in Alaska and Canada is much greater, so our Type 1 team is moving on.

One public information officer offered this compliment to the Portal-Rodeo community: she said it was one of the most enjoyable fires she had ever worked, because the community was so completely and intelligently engaged. You've asked great questions, given the firefighters unstinting support, and you haven't panicked.  (Cathy Conti, they don't know how to reach you: thanks for the cake!)

Here is this morning's fire map, showing the fire's advance across upper Log Canyon, connecting with the low-intensity burn which was ignited on the ridge northeast of Log Canyon. The canyon bottom was wet enough that the fire did not connect across it. Apparently the initial assessment of moisture content in the fuel load was much less than what they're finding now, and the fire isn't burning as readily as it was expected to do.

The large gray area to the west is the 1994 Rattlesnake burn, which the Horseshoe Fire is burning into; the current fire is not expected to advance very far into the old burn. Today's big smoke plume, however, must have been within the old burn near Helipad 1 (H-1), if I interpret Buck Wickham's statements rightly. Tomorrow's fire map should clarify that point. The small gray patch to the east is the South Fork Fire, another fire ignited this May, most likely by an illegal immigrant, only 3 weeks before the Horseshoe Fire. Fuels were wetter and conditions cooler during the South Fork Fire, and only 88 acres were burned then. As of this morning, the Horseshoe Fire had burned 2200 acres.

A Yellow Grosbeak––Yippee!

Yellow Grosbeak on Ocotillo north of Rodeo NM 

(Photo by Mel Moe)

Our neighbor, Mel Moe, called this morning to report that a male Yellow Grosbeak, only rarely seen in the US, visited water in his yard early today. He sent these photos of the event. Mel lives in New Mexico along State Line Road, and enjoyed the singular experience of seeing this striking bird in two states, when it left his yard and flew into Arizona.

Yellow Grosbeak north of Rodeo NM (Photo by Mel Moe)

If Mel finds the bird again, he will let us know, although the habitat in his yard is not ideal for holding this species. Howell and Webb (Field Guide to the Birds of Mexico etc) describe its habitat as deciduous forest, scrubby woodland, thorn forest, and fruiting trees. This bird got the thorns right.

Meanwhile, birders in the Portal-Rodeo area should watch for this avian celebrity––Alan and I are certainly going to watch our apricot trees!

Thirsty Yellow Grosbeak north of Rodeo NM (Photo by Mel Moe)

Horseshoe Fire: Map of Larger Area

For those of you trying to put the location of the fire into the context of the larger region, here is another map!

Horseshoe Fire Enters Log Canyon

Yellow and yellow-orange areas show the spread of Horseshoe Fire during morning and afternoon of June 3, 2010.

Most recently the Horseshoe Fire has been spreading north and east, touching the bottom of Log Canyon in a couple of spots. Log Canyon is a major tributary of South Fork, where deep pools have thus far allowed small native fish to survive every drought. The confluence of Log Canyon and South Fork is especially rich, and in past years Eared Quetzals have feasted in this spot on the fall berries of Arizona Madrone trees.

Eared Quetzal in Arizona Madrone 

(Watercolor by Narca)

Mary Rasmussen, an information officer for the Forest Service, today likened the fire strategy to a cat-and-mouse dynamic, the fire being the mouse. When the fire advances in one place, the fire crews put a paw in its path, in the form of a low-intensity burn along a ridgeline. What does that mean for Log Canyon? Yesterday firefighters aerially ignited (remember the ping-pong balls?) the ridges to the northeast of the main fire. Those disjunct fires are now burning downslope towards the bottom of Log Canyon, opposite the area being burned by the main fire.

Ignited fire on ridges above Log Canyon, from road to Onion Saddle

Against expectations, the fire has not yet entered the riparian corridor in South Fork. That vegetation is wetter and has so far been resisting the fire's incursion.

Mary also addressed a rumor floating around, that the Forest Service and fire crews had planned a 32,000-acre "burn-out." This isn't true. The only fires being ignited are those needed to manipulate the spread of the fire, to encourage a low-intensity burn.

Yesterday, a big column of smoke blew up behind our house, as the fire burned the new ridges and the winds shifted.

Smoke behind our house, drifting toward Rodeo NM

(Photos by Narca)

Now We Wait

Last night's fire update in the Portal Rescue classroom was again a valuable exercise in explaining what has been accomplished toward containing the fire, and what we can anticipate. Portaleños packed the place, listened, asked questions, and aired concerns.

So far, the fire in South Fork continues to burn at the desired low intensity. Most of the canopy within the burned area of South Fork is still intact. Fire is just reaching the canyon bottom in the vicinity of Maple Camp and higher. We are moving beyond the first big hurdle in what promises to be a month-long crisis. A containment date has been set for mid-June; however we are cautioned that a containment date and a controlled date are not the same. A contained fire has the management plan well in place and holding, but it is not yet controlled.

The fire has not been spreading south of the main burn during the past day or two.

A new, more elaborate fire map added a major feature to the now-familiar fire perimeter (which currently encompasses 37,000 acres) and to the updated extent of the burn: now the map includes a number of interior lines, each labeled as a "MAP" or Management Action Point. (We labored through a lot of acronyms tonight!) A MAP is a trigger point. When the fire reaches that position, it triggers a cascade of new management decisions and actions, all determined by the fire's behavior at that time. Actions may include running a new fire model, encouraging more low-intensity burning, and/or evacuating residents in different parts of Cave Creek Canyon.

Many residents were encouraged that the village of Portal now lies just outside the projected fire perimeter line. We are cautioned that smoke from the fire is expected to get worse, especially as it draws closer to town and as it makes any uphill runs. During the recent period of low-intensity burn, we've seen little smoke.

Any action the crew takes will depend upon the fire's behavior and the type of habitat fueling it: oak habitat is handled differently from pine. Does that fine a level of management imply that we can control this thing? As long as the wind behaves, and other variables fall into place... that's what we're led to believe.

Tonight the crews will begin to employ a new tactic: dropping "ping-pong balls" from a helicopter to set fire along certain ridgelines, ahead of the main fire. (In fire parlance, a "ping-pong ball" is a PSD... no, that doesn't help... a Plastic Sphere Dispenser... or was that a DAID, a Delayed Aerial Ignition Device?)

Whatever you call it, the idea is to slow the fire's advance, to keep it burning at a low intensity by starting another fire ahead of it. Fire on a ridge backs down into canyons much more slowly, in contrast to the blast of higher-intensity fire that often happens when it burns uphill. Burning at night when temperatures are cooler, humidity higher, and winds calmer, also encourages a low-intensity burn. So now that the fire is reaching the bottom of South Fork, the goal tonight is to burn ahead of the fire on the opposite ridge, anticipating the fire's run uphill, to try to keep a low-intensity fire going on the further, western side of South Fork canyon, too.

Paul Hirt spoke to the benefits of this fire, if crews are able to maintain a low-intensity burn. He's right. We've had 100 years of fire suppression and fuel build-up, and as long as this continues to be handled skillfully and if the wind continues to cooperate, the habitat stands to benefit considerably in the long term. Once it's behind us, the longer-term prospects for a catastrophic fire are diminished.

Biologists from the Forest Service expressed hope that most tree-nesting birds will survive the burn. Although they didn't mention ground-nesting species like Painted Redstarts and Red-faced Warblers, those are obviously much more vulnerable; however most adult birds should be able to move out of harm's path. Special care is being taken around the known nest territories of Spotted Owls (another acronym cropped up here––you really don't want to know).

Spotted Owl (Pen and ink by Narca)

We're walking a fine balance, and so far, so good. Most preparations are in place, and now we wait.

Glenn Klingler is still considering running the near-annual trogon census about the third weekend in June, but that is entirely dependent on the fire's behavior then. Public safety will be the paramount factor.

The community gives its hearty thanks to everyone working so hard on the Horseshoe Fire and our best wishes for a speedy recovery to the two firefighters who were injured while working the firelines, and who were airlifted to Tucson. I hear that a new sign has gone up in town, complete with balloons, expressing those thanks. (Delane, did I get that right? Balloons? Ribbons? Colored flagging, such as has appeared on various street signs and structures around the canyon?). The fire team also very sincerely thanked District Ranger Bill Edwards and the other employees of Coronado National Forest for their big help and cooperation, saying that such cooperation isn't always forthcoming.

(A note to Hizzoner the Mayor––a.k.a. Howard Topoff: after seeing up close how a real government agency functions, I don't think we have enough acronyms in Portal.)

Fire Not Deterring Illegal Immigrants

I should also note that Helen and I were told by firefighters that they are continuing to see illegal immigrants, by day and by night (through night-vision binoculars), who are traversing the Chiricahua Mountains, even as they burn, even through the newly-burned region.

If you really would like to help Portal, the Chiricahua Mountains, and other Borderland communities, please support immediate enforcement of our immigration laws and (as a separate issue) reform of our immigration policy, including reinstituting a rational, national workers' program, such as the Braceros program which the US had for many years during and after World War II. It worked.

Such a worker program would  prevent the sufferings and occasional deaths of workers attempting to enter the country illegally––and it would alleviate problems in places like Portal, where fully 1/4 of all homes were broken into last year by illegal immigrants. It would also address an economic need in the US. You have only to stay a short while in our Border communities to sense the growing desperation, as the federal government holds back from dealing with this complex problem, out of fear of losing votes.

South Fork Today: the Horseshoe Fire

Last night smoke from the Horseshoe Fire made sleep difficult. When the smoke eased, I slept in––until a phone call from Helen Snyder had me out of bed and out the door in 15 minutes!

We met Jim Payne and Ron Kaczor, both public information officials assigned to the fire, at the Visitor Center in Cave Creek Canyon, and they took Helen and me into South Fork for a firsthand look at fire preparations in that much-loved canyon.

Horseshoe Fire Map, day by day growth

I'll summarize the situation first, then go into details of what we saw. The fire is now backing into the upper reaches of South Fork, its growth slowed by light, upslope wind. Debris fall from burning trees carries it downslope. It is burning into the region above Maple Camp and is expected to reach the canyon bottom by tonight. So far (incredibly, in the view of experts here) flames running into the canyon have only been 6 inches to 3 feet high in most places––perfect for a low-intensity burn. No one expected it to behave as sedately in South Fork as it has thus far done.

Firefighters identified two scree slopes on opposing walls of South Fork and built a fire line between them. They will try to hold the fire at that line, in the upper reaches of the canyon. During the 1994 Rattlesnake Fire, they anchored the fire lines on ridgetops, only to see line after line blown away by that inferno, in a terribly frustrating loss of effort. Helen and I talked to firefighters who had also worked the Rattlesnake, and they said that they had been "well-schooled" by that fire. One laughed and said that he had never wanted to be assigned to the Chiricahuas again because of the exceedingly rugged terrain, and he has refused other assignments here. Yet he's back now, helping in South Fork.

Discussing fire map with Jim Payne & Division subchief

(Photo by Helen Snyder)

As we drove into the main Cave Creek Canyon, we saw where fire crews have been cutting back brush from along the road, for the most part taking small trees and shrubs. Next step is to come through with a big chipper, and to reduce all the cuttings to woodchips, which are left along the roadside.

Preparations at cabin in South Fork (Photo by Narca)

In South Fork, nothing has been "brushed" except in the immediate area of the two cabins just above the bridge. There, trees were left standing, and the undergrowth was completely removed and raked away. Sprinkler systems have been set up around both cabins (as is being done around residences in the main canyon). Otherwise, South Fork––so far––is as it was, a rich tangle of riparian habitat where the calls of nesting trogons echo from the cliff faces.

Fire crews assemble in South Fork (Photo by Narca)

At the trailhead was a fire-jam of firetrucks, firefighters, and safety officers. One was manipulating computer images on a laptop, atop the roof of his truck. His program was the most sophisticated use of Google Earth I've yet seen. There was the terrain around South Fork, with the current fire perimeter and all the technical information about the landscape needed for studying and implementing their strategies.

High-tech fire-fighting, with Helen Snyder looking on 

(Photo by Narca)

Showing the crew a trogon nest 

(Photo by Helen Snyder)

Trogons are exerting their charm over the workers here. A male repeatedly landed on one of the picnic tables, in full view of crews assembling in South Fork early this morning. Several of the firefighters trailed after us to look at a nearby trogon nest. They wanted to hear about the richness of the canyon and the factors that create its high diversity. Our community is tremendously grateful for their hard work.

Portal-style fire command center (Photo by Narca)