We drove a slightly different route driving back home: instead of using 1-10 all the way to Benson, we took the more scenic route along the Mexican border. Just before I-10 enters Arizona we veered south on NM90 into Portal, a two-lane road that hugs the eastern slopes of the Chiricahua.
"There's a fire up there!" said Kevin. Sure enough, high in the peaks we saw white smoke rising. Was this the same fire that was burning in this area well over three weeks ago?
When we approached the turn-off to Portal, AZ we saw a small tent village on the east side of the road. Then we spotted fire trucks and a small community of trailers, temper-tents and fold-down tables and chairs. It reminded me of the staging areas the US military uses in Kuwait. This was the actual Incident Command Post (ICP) combating this fire.
Except this place also had pink porta-pots.
We opted to stop and ask questions about this event. A liaison offer, agent Clawson, was glad to answer all our questions.
This is a new fire, he said, one that started about five days ago by humans. (Hmm, wanna bet illegals started this one again?). It's in the Horseshoe Canyon and thus called the Horseshoe Fire. Right now around 1800 acres are burning. "Before this is over I expect about 33,000 acres to burn, as it's high up in rugged terrain" Clawson added. Over 800 crew from across the Southwest, to include Oregon, Washington, Nevada are here working 12-16 hour shifts wearing about 40 pounds of fire-fighting gear. We didn't see any planes flying overhead, or anyone rushing out with another waterload. In fact, several fighters were relaxing under a canopy playing cards. Fighting fires is not easy and they deserve breaks. They have plenty of food and water keeping them healthy.
An attendant inside the Desert Museum, next door to the ICP, told me the fire is in very brittle shrubbery so dry it "needed to burn." "I haven't seen that area burn in 20 years." The area around Horseshoe Canyon, however, is a renowned birding area and of high priority for the fire fighters.
Thus our drive home was colored not so much with the usual USBP vans and trucks along this route, but Forest Service and area fire fighting vehicles along the road. Fifteen miles from the ICP is where the rancher Rob Kentz was murdered by Mexican drug traffickers about two months ago.
"This is not a very safe area" added Clawson before we thanked his crew for their efforts and drove on.
http://www.inciweb.org/incident/1966/
http://www.svherald.com/content/news/2010/05/29/horseshoe-fire-grows-yellow-jacket-fire-nearly-controlled
