Fire Incidents
Green Gate Fire
Shortly after midnight on May 22 Walker Fire was dispatched to a wildfire subsequently named the Green Gate Fire. It was located just off of Big Bug Mesa Rd a little ways past Amulet Mine Rd.
The fire was approximately five acres over extremely steep terrain that was heavily forested and had a lot of dead and down inside the fireline.
We received help from several Prescott National Forest hot shot crews and Central Yavapai lent us a water tender.
We had 14 Walker firefighters on scene who engaged in tasks ranging from line construction, pumping water up to the head of the fire, shuttling water tenders and mopping up. Included in the 14 were four firefighters who drove up from Phoenix in the middle of the night to help. For several of our crew this was a 12-16 hour day of fighting fire.
We will be involved with more mop up work on Thursday.
Hoot Owl Fire
On Sunday May 5th, Walker Fire was dispatched to a wildfire on Hoot Owl Rd which could be described as being between Potato Patch and Mountain Pine Acres. The fire was only about 1/2 an acre but was made complex by the steepness of the terrain, the extent to which there was a combination of dead and down and stacked wood piles inside the fire line, the close proximity of a house, the even closer proximity of an out-building of sorts, the incredibly thick over-grown forest, the inability for every vehicle to get to the scene (road condition, steepness and narrowness) and that the road was very narrow and appeared to dead end.
Walker Engine 86 was first on scene and assumed command of the incident. Other Walker vehicles participating were Patrol 85, Patrol 80. Patrol 84, Tender 81 and Rescue 81 (in case someone got hurt). In all there were 13 firefighters from Walker. Additionally we had outside help from a Forest Service engine, a Forest Service command vehicle, a Type 6 engine from Groom Greek, a Water Tender from Groom Creek and a command vehicle from AZ State Forestry Division.
This may seem like a large response for a half acre and it was but we would rather have too many than too few especially during the fire season.
Tactically, Engine 86 and the Forest Service engine were positioned for the most direct attack. The water tenders could not get to the scene because of the road so Patrol 85 shuttled water from the water tenders staging area up to the incident to refill the engines. The crews from Patrols 84 and 80 constructed the fire line along with Forest Service and Groom Creek personnel.
We will be revisiting the site over the next couple of days to make sure nothing pops back up.
