Fire!

The photo above is from the Aspen Fire on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was started on July 29 by a lightening strike. It has burned more than 4,000 acres to date. If you click over there to read more about it, look at the map. I live about where the little circle is where it says North Rim on that map.


And this photo shows the smoke in Flagstaff last Sunday night, coming from the Taylor Fire, 13 miles away in the Coconino National Forest. The cause of this fire is still under investigation.

Both of the fires above have burned large areas, one in a national park, the other in a national forest. The fire crews have worked hard to keep them contained and under control.

When I was a little girl in the late 50's and early 60's, my parents left me and my brothers at home unattended while they worked. In summer, we had the run of the woods and the neighborhood, which was very rural back then. My father raised pigs for sale at the stockyard in Atlanta. He picked up the garbage from several restaurants about three times a week to feed his small herd (is that what a group of pigs is called???) of pigs.

The Agriculture Inspector from the state of Georgia came around, and inspected the feed about once a month. Sometime in the early 60's, he instructed my father to "cook" the slop to a certain temperature before feeding to the hogs. So, my father had a cooker made. This cooker was made from two 55 gallon barrells, sliced in two pieces lengthwise, and welded together end to end. One half was attached to the other with hinges, to make a large kettle with a lid. This was on legs about two feet off the ground.

While our parents worked, my brothers and I had the chore of building a fire under this contraption, and keeping the fire burning for two days each time. We used old tires for the fuel, which gave off huge billows of black smoke. As you might know, we didn't pay very close attention to that fire. We were kids, after all.

My oldest brother was about 11, I was 9, my younger brother was 8. We were so busy playing, that we did not notice that the fire had spread from under the cooker into the woods. We did not know what to do. I don't think any of us even knew how to use the telephone, or who to call. I ran up to the road, trying to figure out what to do. The first vehicle that came by was a van. I don't know what the man driving it was selling, but he had lots of burlap bags in the back of that van.

He ran into our house and called the fire department, then got a handful of those burlap bags out of the van. He wet them all down with the hose, and went with us to the fire. We all used those wet bags, slapping them at the flames to put the fire out. I don't know how many acres we burned, or how long it took to get the fire out, but I can remember how mad my father was at us for letting the fire get out of control. I can not imagine something like that happening today, with just a bunch of kids in charge.

Oh the 4th of July, I met Smokey the Bear when he came to the Grand Canyon for the open house at our Emergency Services building. He gave me a can cozy with his picture on it:


It says: "Never leave your campfire unattended! Extinguish your fire using these three steps:

DROWN! STIR! FEEL!"

If you would like to win this cozy, leave a comment or send me an email (fabgrandma at gmail dot com), telling me your fire story. Whether it is a campfire, a kitchen fire, or a forest fire, tell me about it. I'll pick a winner at random on September 1. You'll get this cute cozy as the prize.

And remember, Only YOU can prevent wildfires!

Fire On The North Rim

One of the most frequently asked questions I get from visitors at the entrance station is "How long ago was the fire on Highway 67 a few miles back?" That fire, known as the Warm Fire, was caused by a lightening strike on June 8, 2006, and burned over 58,000 acres before it was contained on July 4.


While the burned area visible to visitors who drive along that section of Highway 67 to get to the North Rim may look devastated, the vegetation is returning. There are lots of young aspens coming up, and plenty of wildflowers and grasses there, too. To us humans, it looks like a terrible loss. But to mother nature, fire is one of her tools of renewal.

The aspens come back first. The shade cover from the aspen slow the growth of the pines and firs. But aspen grow quickly and don't live as long. So when they die the canopy opens up and allows the pines and firs to grow. This is forest succession. Plus the Ponderosa Pine are very fire resistant. The thick bark and self-pruning of the lower dead branches helps protect them from fire. Many have scorched trunks , but are still alive and provide the seed for new pines.

If you click on the picture above to enlarge it, and look closely, you'll see the new growth coming up around the dead, burned trees. You may or may not see the nesting holes of the woodpeckers and flickers who live in the shells of the dead trees, eating the many insects that also occupy the area.

Last week, we had thunderstorms in the area again. Five new fires were ignited by lightening from those storms, in various areas of the North Rim. No, I am not afraid, we'll be evacuated long before we are in any danger, if any of the fires come too close. The fire above is called the Aspen Fire, on the Wallhalla Plateau, near Cape Royal. It is probably north of where my friend and I hiked a few weeks ago. I don't know for sure, because they have closed the road. It is about 3.5 miles or so across the canyon from where I live. So far it has burned about 730 acres.

There is a lot of smoke from this fire. At night, it sinks down into the canyon so that in the morning all you can see is the smoke.

According to the Wildland Fire Policy, “...the role of federal agencies in the wildland/urban interface includes wildland firefighting, hazard fuels reduction, cooperative prevention and education, and technical assistance. Primary responsibility rests at the state and local levels…” "....Finally, agencies and the public must change their expectation that all wildfires can be controlled or suppressed. No organization, technology, or equipment can provide absolute protection when unusual fuel build-ups, extreme weather conditions, multiple ignitions, and extreme fire behavior periodically come together to form catastrophic events..."

(the road to my home)

As this fire continues, I am sure I will be asked lots of questions about it from visitors when I go back to work on Tuesday. I hope I can give the correct answers, and let them know that even though it looks like a bad thing, it really is nature doing what it does.

For more information about fires on the North Rim, see Geogypsy's post here.