It's Wildland Fire Season In Arizona - A First Hand Look.

Some people live with tornadoes, some with floods, some with earthquakes.  Where I live the threat is wild land fire.  This is the fire season in AZ and it is underway.   It gets warm and windy.  Both conditions add to extreme  fire danger. Sometimes here on a hot windy day our humidity levels will reach down to 3% to 5  humidity!!! Not exactly NNY weather! On a hot June day once Phoenix TV stations were reporting 1% humidity.

In search and rescue we do not fight fires, but act right along with fire crews by evacuating homes in the path of the fire.  Since we work in the path of the fire we have some basic wild land fire safety training and we are usually accompanied by a forest fire specialist who can warn us when the fire behavior changes or accelerates and we must get out of the way or get to a safety zone.  Fire can travel at amazing speeds under certain conditions. 
Below are some pictures from last year's fire season.

Above and below.  Forest fire right on the edge of the Flagstaff city limits. 

These events look like chaos but they are actually very well organized

The yellow shirts and green pants are all Nomex and fire resistant. You are not allowed to

wear any synthetic clothing since it can melt to your skin.

Slurry tanker lining up for a drop of fire retardant on a fire.

An extremely dangerous job.

At night after the  fire was successfully knocked down.  No homes lost this time. 

On the way with a Forest Service escort to evacuate homes in the path of a fire.

                                        Most of the pictures you see here are from an arson fire set
                                               by a guy who had an argument with his girl friend.


So when I hear some pro wind ass----!!! say in a public meeting about wind development opposition that "you better hope your house doesn't burn down", that has a little different meaning for me and is not an abstract concept when you actually have to evacuate a families from their homes because they may burn down in a forest fire.

I will keep to myself what I think should be done to a person who makes those kinds of threats. One more reason to rid our community of the insidious  wind disease once and for all!