The 2000 fire season's nastiest burns—so far
YEP, IT'S BEEN A LONG hot summer. The table below presents ten out of the many thousands of officially reported fires that at press time had burned over 2.1 million acres across the U.S. this year—plus a selection of other notable flash points such as Minnesota (well-primed with heaps of blowdown in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness). Which
raises the question: When will it end? By early July, meteorologists were seeing signals that La Niña—the climate pattern that usually spells drought in the southern U.S.—was abating. But Stephen Dickenson, emergency operations coordinator for the National Interagency Fire Center, says it ain't over yet. Well into the fall, La Niña
might still set the stage for big fires in areas of California, the Great Basin, and the Northern Rockies below 4,000 feet that are thick with fast-burning grass, sagebrush, and juniper. For news on the latest flare-ups, see www.outsidemag.com/fires. —CAROL GREENHOUSE
| The Valentine Fire: The Southwest's first major blaze of the year—a 40,333-acre fire just outside Tatum, New Mexico—took hold on Valentine's Day and caught the Forest Service off guard, forcing 85 volunteer firefighters to work around the clock for 60
hours. It was the first of many such days to come; by June, the 2000 fire season was already the region's worst ever. |
The Pumpkin Fire: When first sighted near the Kendrick Mountain Wilderness Area, 25 miles outside Flagstaff, Arizona, at 9 a.m. on May 24, the hot spot was only ten feet in diameter. But early detection didn't help—100 acres went up in an hour, a
breath-sucking 2,797 by midnight. Two weeks and $6.5 million in costs later, all 14,757 acres of the wilderness area were gone. |
| The Outlet Fire: By early summer, federal wildland managers had set nearly 3,000 prescribed fires. About 98 percent stayed under control, but not this one. Set two miles north of the Grand Canyon's North Rim Village on April 27, this 500-acre planned burn
ultimately scorched 14,118 acres and ended up costing $9.5 million to snuff out. |
The Holeyland Fire: How do you fight fire in the Everglades, miles from the nearest road? "We send in the Bombardiers," explains district forester Sue Congelosi. These are tanks that roll over rugged terrain spraying water in their wake. They doused this
fire—14,000-acres northwest of Fort Lauderdale set off by lightning on Memorial Day weekend—in just five days. |
| The Cerro Grande Fire: The conflagration that grabbed headlines around the world. No wonder: Spawned by a Park Service prescribed burn on May 4, it threatened the nuke labs of Los Alamos National Laboratory, forced the evacuation of 25,000 inhabitants, charred 245
buildings and 42,878 acres, and ran up a bill that ultimately will cost Uncle Sam half a billion dollars. |
The Viveash Fire: Pecos National Historical Park became a tent city for 1,000 firefighters when what began as a campfire on May 29 swept across 28,283 acres of the Santa Fe National Forest, requiring 56 fire crews, 39 engines, 16 bulldozers, 11 helicopters, 7
slurry bombers, and $10 million to extinguish stubborn flames that couldn't be contained for 26 days. |
| The Cook Ranch Fire: Concerned about his livelihood, one rancher affected by this $2 million, 47,240-acre fire that blew up south of Fort Stockton, Texas, on May 4, asked that his pasture be saved before his house. Both were spared, but not everyone was so lucky.
Texas Forest Service pilot Carl Payne was killed when his single-engine air tanker swiped a tower and crashed. |
The Hi Meadow Fire: One resident offered an officer $1,000 to let him through the roadblock to retrieve his belongings on June 12, when this 10,800-acre wildfire spilled from Pike National Forest into Bailey, Colorado. No dice. Homeowners had mere minutes to
evacuate before 51 homes went up. It took nine days and $4.3 million to contain. |
| The Cree Fire: May 7 was a dark day for three Ruidoso, New Mexico, teens who found a cave, lit their way inside with a burning branch, and managed to torch 8,265 acres of forest. Some, it seems, will never learn the adage about who can prevent forest fires.
Ironically, the original Smokey Bear, an orphan black bear cub, was found 20 miles northeast of here in 1950. |
The Hanford Fire: A fatal car accident started the year's biggest fire—a 192,000-acre monster that on June 29 rolled over nuclear waste dumps at Hanford Nuclear Reservation outside of Richland, Washington. The human cost: Eleven homes torched in nearby
Benton City, plus one man who sustained third-degree burns. Quoth the Energy Department: No radiation was released. |
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