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| View of Portal Peak and the Chiricahua Mountains on 5/19/2011 |
Yes, there is a fire in the Chiricahua Mountains. As of last night InciWeb is reporting almost 33,000 acres have burned in the Chiricahua Mountains. Above is a photograph taken this morning from the Painted Pony Resort showing the effects of the fire on the east flank of the mountains. Grasses on the east flank burned from Sulfur Canyon to south of Portal Road early in the fire and the areas south of Sulfur Canyon to Horseshoe Canyon were back burned by fire crews several days later. A night time lapse video of the back burn was taken by LightBuckets.
Fire fighting crews have worked tirelessly to control the fire which was spread by windy conditions and with controlled back burns both the American Museums Southwest Research Station as well as Cave Creek Canyon received protection. The current maps are available on the Incident Information Website as well as NOAA weather information.