Monument Fire

After four weeks in the desert, I am learning that wildfires are to Arizona as thunderstorms are to Missouri. I’m sure most of you have seen coverage of some of these fires on the national news and radio, and until recently, that’s the closest exposure we had too. About two weeks ago, fires were sparked twenty to thirty miles away from us. We could smell the smoke and see the haze surrounding the mountains around us, but it was never too much of a threat.

Yesterday afternoon, a fire was sparked along the Huachuca mountain range and has grown to encompass a total of 2,500 acres in the last twenty-four hours. Last night we were driving home from Tucson and you could see the orange glow from the mountains forty miles away. As we got closer, it was apparent the flames were uncontained and moving quickly.

This morning it appeared that the fire had settled down. I ventured over to the foothills of the mountain around 11:00 and witnessed the restart of the flames and various helicopters and planes working to contain the fire. About three hours later, many of the once smoldering areas had transitioned back into full, flamed fires. What makes this fire so difficult to deal with is the dryness of the earth, the mountain’s rough terrain, and the fast moving winds. According to the media, the fire is 0% contained and there are five crews of firefighters, 13 fire engines, four water tankers, one air tanker, two planes and three helicopters working to control the situation. Six more fire engines and four water tankers are en route.

The Monument Fire is about three to five miles away from our church and ten to twelve miles away from the apartment. So far we haven’t heard anything about evacuations for the Sierra Vista area. They did evacuate the area immediately surrounding the fires. Keep in mind that the fires seem to be moving into the canyon and mountainside. This means we are relatively safe and out of harms way. I think the choking smoke is the extent of damage/inconvenience we’ll see.

 Please prayer for a quick containment and safety for those working to control this fire.

We’ll keep you updated!

K & T

PS Here's the local news link for you news junkies:
http://www.kvoa.com/news/monument-fire-grows-to-2-500-acres/

Here are some pictures taken of the Monument Fire:

Monument Fire, 12 June; evening flames @ approx. 7:00 p.m.

Planes dropping fire retardant on Monument Fire

Monument Fire 13 June,  approx. 11:00 a.m. (notice helicopter)

Monument Fire, 13 June; restart of flames @ approx 11:30 a.m.

Monument Fire, 13 June; growing flames @ approx. 2:00 p.m.