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For those not noticing the wildfire season this year... the Wallow Fire in Arizona (and New Mexico) is now the largest wildfire in Arizona state history...over 725 sq. mi. consumed.

 

That area is larger than the combined area of Los Angeles and NYC.

 

Containment is 18%, humidity is 1% and winds will pick up again today.

 

Investigators believe was caused by a person, most likely by someone who abandoned a campfire, on May 29.

 

 

 

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Here is a photo of the VLAT (Very Large Air Tanker) on loan from CA to work on the Wallow Fire.

 

It's a converted Douglas DC-10 airliner, it will drop 12,000 gallons of water or retardant in one load in 8 seconds.

 

wf 50

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I heard today at lunch that there are now 9 wildfires in AZ.

 

One is about 20 miles east of the Scout Camp Geronimo. Without a serious wind shift it should not be threatened, however the Forest Service can decide to kick the Scouts out to use it for a base camp.

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Engineer:

 

Hopefully you do not consider the FS using the camp as a base to be a negative. A few years ago, the Day Fire here in SCal was in our camp's vicinity, even threatened it briefly. They used the reservoir for helicopter water pickups, and set up one of two base camps (the other was in the city at the fairgrounds)at 3-Falls. While it may have been a bit hard on the few scouts that could not camp during that period, it was a huge PR positive. We are still getting the benefit of that, after several years. Service, including the use of our facilities, is part and parcel of the Scouting experience.

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Not a negative at all ... more of an imperative ... the FS has first dibs on the camp anyway.

 

My only concern is if they do get the evac order, how fast they can move 400+ scouts + staff out. The camp has no transport.

 

Fires this year are being measured in miles per hour in some cases.

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There was a small one up on the Rim about that distance a week ago but it is out. Based on MODIS there is nothing active in the area.

 

The bigger challenge would be where to send the campers. Raymond is already taking the campers from Lawton from the closer of Coronado Forest. Fitting another 300 or so from Geronimo would be tough.

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Eng,

 

I cannot tell you about 400 scouts and staff, but if my expereince with a group of 50 kids and 3 leaders who got kicked out of camp is any indication, pretty darn fast. Within about 1.5-2 hours of the call, everyone in the group, save one kid, was gone. I haven't looked at summer camp national standards in a while, but I know the CSDC standards require you to have emergency plans in place, including evac.

 

As for the one missing kid, the group's leaders didn't know he was missing, but the adult camp staff knew, and did look for him. I admit the adult staff did have "challenges" finding him, but that was due to the fact the youth staff were hiding him in an attempt to keep him at the camp as he was the only good one in the bunch. Long story short, me and another adult brought him back home, and the kid came back to camp the next year as a staffer.

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