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"The Florida Fire in the Santa Rita Mountains - 2005"

Pictures & story by Richard Olsen

The Photo Gallery: "The Florida Fire in the Santa Rita Mountains - 2005" by Richard Olsen

View of the fire on the evening of Friday, July 8th and the morning of Saturday, July 9th.

Sunday, July 10 - morning Here is the Sunday morning update on our forest fire. It has spread slowly in all directions from the starting point on Florida Peak and now covers several hundred acres. There are about 300 elite "hotshot" firefighters on the scene, but the steep rugged terrain within the Wilderness Area is hampering the control efforts. Predictions at this time are that the fire may not be controlled for a week and could burn several thousand to as much as fifteen thousand acres in the Santa Rita Mountains before control is achieved. The fire is now less than three miles from our beloved Madera Canyon Natural Area and premier bird watching area (on the right below highest peak in picture). It would be a major environmental tragedy if it should get that far. In the picture below, the peak on the far right is 9500 feet high, so you can get an idea of how high the smoke plume was this morning. Richard

Sunday, July 10 - afternoon The firefighters made a super human effort to prevent the fire from topping the mountain, and during Sunday afternoon there were almost continuous air-tanker drops of fire retardant and helicopter drops of water. By the end of the afternoon they had stopped the advance of the fire at the very top of the mountain ridge line. Those of you who live here know there is a small saddle on the top of the mountain ridge that had been burned ten or twelve years ago; yesterday the current forest fire began to top the mountain at that point but was stopped by the airplane and helicopter drops and that area now has a red tinge to it from the many massive red-colored fire retardant drops in that area. We are very, very grateful they stopped the fire advance at that point because if it had gotten over the mountain into Madera Canyon it would have been a catastrophic environmental loss. The fire is still raging on the other side of the mountain and it's still predicted to take up to a week to contain it due to the steep rugged terrain. The picture below was taken just after one of the four-engine air-tankers dropped a huge load of red-colored liquid fire retardant at the ridgeline. The airplane is just above the ridge on the left, and the red retardant is dropping below the ridge on the right. Those pilots really risk their lives to get the retardant in just the right place. As I was watching yesterday afternoon, a large helicopter attempting to drop water a critical location as the fire topped the ridge disappeared into the thick smoke and I was sure it had crashed or was caught in the flames, but it reappeared in 30-sec or so and flew off. We are indeed grateful to those brave folks. Richard

Tuesday morning, July 12, forest fire update. The fire continues to burn on the backside of the Santa Rita Mountains with the most active area behind 9500-ft Mt Wrightson (the tallest peak in the Santa Ritas). Total area burned now exceeds 2000 acres. The entire backside of the mountains has now been burned over, but except for one small temporary area, the fire has not burned over the top ridge of the mountains into Madera Canyon on the Green Valley side (east side). Because the firefighters cannot work in the very steep areas on the upper half of the mountains, the Forest Service has established cleared fire lines at lower levels on all sides of the mountain that they hope will stop the fire. However, the area inside their fire-break totals 18,000 acres so the fire may well burn that total area before it is controlled, and will likely not be fully extinguished until the summer monsoon rains begin sometime in the next two weeks. The pictures below were shot from our patio which is about ten miles form the fire -- I am amazed I am getting such good close-up photos like the second one below showing an air-tanker dropping fire-retardant on the top ridge of the mountain to keep the fire from jumping over to the east side and down into the Madera Canyon Natural Area. I am using a 6.3 megapixel Canon digital SLR camera with a 100-300 mm Canon EF image-stabilized telephoto lens. Richard

Tuesday, July 12, afternoon During the afternoon today (Tuesday, 7-12), the forest fire in the Santa Rita Mountains gained strength and burned to the top and past the back side of 9500-ft Mt Wrightson and moved down toward Josephine Saddle which links Mt Wrightson (peak on the left in the picture below) and 8500-ft Mt Hopkins (peak on the right). Mt Hopkins is the site of the world class Smithsonian astronomical observatory which houses a 23-ft diameter reflecting telescope -- one of the very largest in the world. There are also several smaller telescopes at this facility as well. The white four-story building housing the telescope is visible in the picture below at the very top of the mountain peak on the right, and is shown in the enlargement in the second picture below. This is an irreplaceable facility that at this time is less than two miles (as the crow flies) from where the fire is now burning (actually the fire covers an area of about 2000 acres right now). It is unclear if the observatory is in danger; we will probably know that tomorrow. The fire is burning

freely at this time with zero containment since the fire lines where the US Forest Service hopes to stop the advancing forest fire are well down the mountain. I am sure the Forest Service has some sort of plan to protect the observatory -- at least I hope so because it cost multiple tens of millions of dollars to build. The firefighters are still predicting that the fire will probably burn 15,000 to 18,000 acres over the next week before it is under control. More on the fire tomorrow. Richard

Tuesday, July 12 Here are two more forest fire photos from today, 7/12/05. The one with the smoke plume is spectacular because the smoke has risen to something like 30,000 feet. The fire must have hit a very dense pocket of dry vegetation and the lack of wind at the time allowed the plume to form within minutes. When it started we could see flames hundreds of feet high for a brief period. The second photo shows the full extent of the area now on fire from the north end of the Santa Rita Mts. Richard

Thursday 7/14/2005 Early last evening when the smoke cleared over the mountains we could see the fire had topped the down the mountain toward the west in multiple places. Because the fire is now on "our" side of the mountains it is rather spectacular to view at night -- but also sad because we know the mountain will be very different after the fire. The fire has now burned over 13,000 acres and has been classified by the US Forest Service as category one which means all country-wide resources are now available to fight the fire. The number of fire fighters now total around 900 and more will be added to hold the fire lines now in place to protect the core of the Madera Canyon Natural Area where all the Forest Service recreation sites and some 20 private residences are located. All residents in the canyon and the staff at the large astronomical observatory atop Mt. Richard

Hopkins have been evacuated for safety reasons. Although the smoke is again thick today, it appears the fire is burning down the west side of the mountains at the lower end of Madera Canyon and probably also in the upper area around Josephine Saddle at about 7000'. The fire lines for stopping the fire are well down the mountain near the bottom of Madera Canyon so we expect most of the west side of the mountains to be burned over before the fire is under control -- the entire east and north sides have already burned. This will be a terrible loss to those of us who know and love the area and have spent hundreds of hours hiking there -- it will not likely regrow and recover in our lifetime. These relatively small high elevation mountain areas that jut up in the middle of the desert are termed "sky-islands" because they are islands of forest within the desert and are therefore unique and extremely valuable isolated habitats for animals that cannot live in the desert and are normally found much farther north. Madera Canyon is a world renowned area for birds, many of which are usually found and breed only in Mexico and tropical areas far south. It appears much, and perhaps most, of this unique and valuable wildlife area will be lost for decades, and may never fully recover due to the current world-wide warming trend. We are very sad about this, but life goes on. Richard

Forest Fire Update - evening, 7/14/2005 It has been a very active day for our Santa Rita Mt. forest fire. The two pictures (left) were taken in late afternoon today. The top picture shows the north end of the Santa Rita Mts. as seen from our home in Green Valley. The left third of the mountain in this view was burned from top to bottom during the last 24 hrs, and as I write this at 9 pm the fire is near the road leading up to Madera Canyon (the road is the fire line at that point and that should stop the fire in that area). At the time this picture was taken, the Forest Service was mounting a major effort to halt the fire in this general area, and they appear to have been successful as far as I could tell before it got dark. The view of the fire tonight after dark is the most spectacular so far -- it looks like a distant Xmas decoration scene with hundreds of flickering orange lights and long strings of solid fire on the side of the mountain. Richard

The location above was one of two major areas burning on the west side of the mountain today. The other major area is shown in the second picture below. During the afternoon the fire burned completely over Josephine Saddle in spectacular fashion ("the saddle" is the 7000-ft ridge linking 9500-ft Mt Wrightson (hidden by smoke in the second picture) and 8500-ft Mt Hopkins (where the astronomical observatory is located as seen on the right in the second picture). Tonight, that portion of the fire is slowly burning down hill toward Madera Canyon. During a TV interview tonight with the Forest Service person heading up the fire fighting effort, it was stated they did not believe the telescope complex was in danger (they have a plan for protecting the $100-million complex should the fire get that far), and likewise the area one-half to one-mile on either side of the road through Madera Canyon is believed to be secure (their fire lines are setup to protect at least that narrow area). The Bog Springs Campground also is within the current fire line and is believed to be safe at this time. However, much or most of the remainder of the west side of the mountain could be burned over by the fire during he next few days

In a previous email I stated that the fire had completely burned-out to the north and east; I was incorrect. The fire did burn out on the northern extension of the mountain area we can see from Green Valley, and the back of the mountain we see from Green Valley is no longer burning (it was completely burned over during the past three days). However, part of the main fire has continued to burn strongly in the Santa Rita Mountains to the east toward AZ Highway 83 and the small town of Sonoita, and to the north along the mountain ridge near Box Canyon Road and is burning uncontrolled in those areas after jumping the first fire lines. A second fire line has been established for those areas and it is believed this will stop the fire in those areas within a few days. However, there is no rain in the forecast for the next week, so the fire will likely continue burning in many areas for up to another week, and the authorities are estimating the total area burned will be at least 20,000 acres. As of the end of today, a total of about 15,000 acres has burned. Richard

Forest Fire Update -- Friday 7/15/2005 The fire continues to burn, but the Forest Service claims it is now 40% contained. The picture below was taken about noon today (Friday). The area on the left side of the photo was completely burned yesterday when the total area burned by the fire jumped from around 14,000 acres to about 20,000 acres in a 24-hr period. The fire burning at the bottom of the mountain (bottom left-center of the picture) is burning just east of the road to Madera Canyon, and was, I believe, started by the Forest Service as a "back-burn" to protect Madera Canyon. The part of the fire that went through Josephine Saddle yesterday afternoon (right center of picture) continues to slowly burn down the mountain toward Madera Canyon, but the Forest Service expresses much confidence that the core of Madera Canyon is safe behind their fire lines. The fire appears not to be advancing at this time up Mt Hopkins toward the telescope complex. It still looks pretty bad as the west face of our beautiful mountain burns. Richard

Forest Fire Update - 7/16/2005 The fire continues to burn on the west face of the mountains facing Green Valley, up through Josephine Saddle and onto the mid-slopes of Mt Hopkins at about 7,000 feet, and to the east on the back side of the mountains toward Az Highway 83. The Forest Service map below shows the progress of the fire over the past several days. The Forest Service is prepared to initiate back-burns when and if the fire approaches their fire line on the west face above Madera Canyon. They are now predicting that if we do not get rain within the next five days the total area burned will likely reach 60,000 acres, including the whole west face of the Santa Rita Mountains facing Green Valley. We are of course hoping for rain -- the monsoon has reached northern Mexico, but is still well south of the Santa Rita Mountains at Green Valley. Richard

Fire update 7/16/2005 As of about 3:30 pm, the Santa Rita Mountain forest fire was slowly burning down the west face of the mountain as one continuous fire (except for the north end, left in the picture, which has already been burned). It is anticipated it will burn all the way down to where the Forest Service fire-line is just above Madera Canyon and at that time back-fires will be started that will work their way up the mountain and meet the main fire. This will effectively put the fire out on the west face of the mountain -- if all goes according to plan -- but at that point the entire west face of the mountain that we see from Green Valley will have been burned. Clouds were forming over the mountain this afternoon, so we are hoping there might be a shower there this evening -- its a small chance but we are hopeful. I will attempt to get some night shots of the fire from our patio after dark tonight. Richard

Forest Fire Update - 10 am Sun, 7/17/2005 Here is a map of the extent of the forest fire from the Forest Service as of late Sat. As is obvious from the map, most of the forested part of the Santa Rita Mountains has already been burned. The main remaining questions at this time involve the fate of the unique Natural Area at Madera Canyon and the observatory complex atop Mt Hopkins.

Last evening about 6 pm the Santa Rita Mts took a direct hit from a fair-sized, isolated thunderstorm and a significant amount of rain fell on the fire area. This morning as of this writing at about 10 am I can see that much of the main fire has

been extinguished but there are several small isolated fires still burning and expanding on the west face of the mountain. A 30% chance for isolated thunderstorms is predicted again for today, but after that the next opportunity for rain will not be until about next Wed or Thur. If we get more rain today the fire could possibly be extinguished, but if not the many small fires still burning will likely expand again (predicted temp for Green Valley today is 108 -- that will make 34 straight days over 100 -- the record for Tucson is 39 days). The Forest Service continues to express cautious optimism about protecting the core area of Madera Canyon and the $100 million observatory complex on Mt Hopkins (before the rain yesterday those two spots were less than a mile from the main fire). We shall see what happens in the next 24 hours. Richard

This image file came from a US Forest Service website and is a great picture showing a view of the fire on the west face of the Santa Rita Mts. and burning at Josephine Saddle (with 9500-ft Mt Wrightson in the background in the upper right) as seen from the Smithsonian observatory complex atop Mt Hopkins at 8500 feet. I believe this picture was taken yesterday afternoon (Saturday). This will give you a good idea of what Josephine Saddle looks like up close (it's the ridge connecting Mt Hopkins with Mt Wrightson). Richard

[From your Webmaster: More pictures of the fire can be found at the following site Eastern AZ Management Team (photo shown here by Jason Coil).]

Forest Fire Update -- 2 pm July 18, 2005 Since my morning fire update the extremely hot and dry conditions in the area today have caused the small fires on the west face of the mountain to explode into activity (see second picture below). This has apparently prompted the Forest Service to initiate a planned back-burn from within Madera Canyon that is designed to burn up hill and eventually extinguish the fires burning on the upper west face by robbing them of fuel as they burn down hill (the two fires will meet and cancel each other out). This will presumably protect the core area of Madera Canyon but will probably burn much of the remaining unburned area higher on the west face. This appears a bit risky but I guess we must trust the experts. I am still wondering why they did not simply extinguish the few remaining small fires on the west face yesterday when they apparently had the chance to do so using helicopter water drops (see first picture below). But again, the fire fighters have done a good job so far so I am sure they have good reasons for handling it the way they did. From my vantage point in Green Valley I cannot see if the fire on the other side of Josephine Saddle is also burning -- that one could threaten the observatory on Mt Hopkins if it takes off since it was only a half-mile from there before the rain storm Sat evening. We shall see how this plays out over the next 48 hours. Richard

Final Florida Forest Fire Update -- Friday, July 22, 2005 As can be seen in the photo the west face of the Santa Rita Mountains (9500-ft Mt Wrightson is on the right) there is one very small area still smoldering on the side of the mountain we see from Green Valley (the area is not as large at it appears because a high wind was blowing the smoke around at the time of the photo). The area still smoldering is not believed to be a threat and will surely burn out as we get more rain over the next few days. We have had two significant thunder storms and a couple smaller showers during he past several days over the mountains which have for all intents and purposes extinguished the Florida Fire that burned more than 23,000 acres in the Santa Rita Mountains and has cost over $8 million dollars to contain. All Madera Canyon residents were allowed back in their homes yesterday, and the astronomers returned to the observatory to continue their studies. There is still a team of a hundred or so Forest Service personnel who are mopping up and repairing areas disturbed by the fire fighting efforts, but most of the small army of fire fighters have now moved on to the several other fires still burning in other parts of Arizona.

We are all very happy that Madera Canyon and the Mt Hopkins observatory complex were spared from the flames, but much of our lovely mountains were burned to various degrees by the fire. As can be seen in the photo below, most of the west face of the mountains appear to still be green and healthy despite the fire which affected most of the west face. Forest areas below and on the backside of Mt Wrightson and within the Josephine Saddle area were apparently affected to a greater extent. However, while there are a lot of areas where it is obvious by the brown or black coloration that the fire destroyed the trees and other woody vegetation, the fire apparently burned with relatively low intensity in most parts of the forest so that only the underbrush appears to have been burned and the trees were spared. It will be a little while before we know that for sure, but from what I can tell without being able to drive into Madera Canyon, most of the forested areas look to be alive and well. Because of the wonderful job done by the Forest Service fire fighters, it appears at this time that the fire will not have major long lasting negative effects, and will likely produce long-term benefits for wildlife habitat and prevention of future fires. It will probably be awhile before the public is allowed back into the Madera Canyon recreation areas, but I will provide pictures once we gain access to the area. Richard Olsen