Southern Arizona Fire Season 2006

Mt. Graham Bug Fire 07/19/06:

The Pinaleno mountain range has a new fire that started about 1545 hours just south of Lady bug saddle probably due to lightening. The fire is called "Bug" and it has burned about half to three-quarters of an acre with down trees for fuel. The USFS is deploying a small aircraft to drop retardant on it and is dispatching a fire crew from the Arizona State Prison, with about 30 fire fighters. It is not currently on the web site because it is not a big fire right now. But if it gets big, it will be posted on the following web site.

http://www.nifc.gov/

Mt. Graham Shingle Fire: 06/06/06:

We had some dry lightning yesterday afternoon/evening. Two fires started, one on state land just north of High Peak (Mt. Graham) about 3,800 feet elevation. It is in a previously burned area (Nuttall Complex - 2004).

The second fire is called the Shingle Fire - north of Old Columbine and is over 30 acres in size. The Shingle Fire is at 4,500 feet elevation and about 4.5 miles away from the Observatory.

UAPD Sergeant Garcia, who has talked with the USFS fire dispatcher, has provided the following set of coordinates for the Shingle Fire:

LAT/LONG

32° 46' 44.6"  109° 54' 16.6"

At this time there is no threat to the Observatory.

Cheers!

John

Catalina Mountains near Tucson 05/22/06:

Channel 4 in Tucson has this report on the Romero fire in the Catalina's mountains below the University's telescope complex on Mt. Lemon.

Includes videos.

Mt. Graham Fire 05/22/06:

The Taylor Fire is burning near North Taylor Creek (about 6 miles from the site. A type 2 incident management team was deployed on Saturday at 1800 hours. As of last night the fire had burned 117 acres and was 35% contained. The USFS expected to make a lot of headway today. The Nuttall Fire in 2004 burned out much of the area between Taylor Creek and the Observatory thus providing a barrier.

5 Hot Shot crews and several helicopters are working the fire - the District Ranger was much more at ease last night when he called with the report.

There is no current threat to the Observatory.

John

Mt. Graham Fire 05/20/06:

The USFS notified us this morning regarding a fire near Taylor Canyon (or Creek) -- on the west side of Clark Peak about 5 miles west of the Observatory on the north slopes. At 9:00 AM the fire was reported to be about 50 acres and growing. The Nuttall Complex (2004) burned out much of the area between the Observatory and Clark Peak so we have a reasonable buffer at this time. The Safford Ranger District will be handing off the fire fighting responsibilities to an incident management team at 1800 hours this evening.

There is no current threat to the Observatory. Biologist working on the mountain should stay in radio contact at all times.

We will keep you informed as new information comes in.

John