The Spruce Fire
Saturday, July 6, 2003. Luckily it started at dusk and the wind which had been strong all day, was just dying out. It was a very long fire, I decided to get between it and my house, and spent 15 minutes trying to find the eastern end. It was mainly pine needles burning, just a few tall trees caught, there were mass quantities of firefighters. I got my Class 2 rating and the necessary equipment this spring so they couldn't kick me off. The pros stayed up all night, I went home at midnight (300 yards away) and went to bed. All the lines of bare dirt I made failed to hold the part of the fire I was working on, but there was a road that eventually did stop it. One ember from an exploding pine landed about 100 feet from my brother's, making about a 40 foot circle of fire which we put out with water.
I happened to come across Monday's paper, and lo and behold, there I was 'an unidentified firefighter' on the front page. I had noticed a couple of firefighters walking along the fire line, one of them suddenly whipped out a camera with a long lens and started snapping pictures of me. At the time, the firefighters running things had decided to let that hillside burn to the road, while I was fruitlessly raking a fire line, they were downhill lighting a backfire.
I found the grass rake was pretty effective, but also needed a shovel to get rid of decomposed stuff under the pine needles, difficult to carry 2 tools. If you're interested in a 3d flyover of Walker for the PC, or a map of where the fire was, click here. I'm also offering a FREE market comparison of your property to all Walker residents, email me at hike1213@yahoo.com, or phone me at 928-778-7363, fax 928-771-2290. Broker: Clayton Properties, 450 W. Goodwin St. Suite 107, Prescott, AZ 86303; phone 928-717-0742.
The next day