We drove north on 89A in the Oak Creek Canyon towards Oak Creek Vista. We were on our way to our camp for the evening when we spotted a small but heavy billow of smoke rising to our west in the canyon just off the road past Slide Rock State Park. It looked a little too heavy to be caused by someone grilling and I asked George to turn around. As we drove by a second time I saw flames in the smoke and realized this was likely the beginnings of a small forest fire.
We stopped at Slide Rock State Park to let the Ranger know there was a fire less than a quarter mile north of the park. As of the time we reported the it, the Rangers at Slide Rock were not yet aware of the fire. We then headed north to check out the fire scene for a bit. In the less than 10 minutes it took us to arrive back to the fire scene we would estimate the fire to be less than 2 acres. As of the time of this writing, the fire had grown to 8,500 acres.
Here we are approaching the fire after leaving Slide Rock State Park.
Over the next few minutes the fire grew intensely. We shot several videos.
Firefighters showed up quickly and realized they would not be able to get manpower into the canyon to fight the fire from the ground. We were advised that the canyon would likely be evacuated shortly so aerial crews could come in and begin battling the fire. This was the last video we shot on the ground before climbing into our van to continue north; we were one of the last vehicles allowed through the canyon before all traffic was closed down on route 89A.
The fire had grown exponentially in the short time since we spotted the initial smoke to our departure from the scene. Sustained winds in excess of 20 miles per hour with gusts upwards of 40 miles per hour, coupled with low humidity, drought conditions and the funnel shape of the canyon significantly helped fuel the fire.
That first night the fire grew to 500 acres. By Thursday it was in excess of 4,500 acres, by Friday morning it had grown to 7,500 acres and by Friday night, May 23rd it had grown to 8,500 acres with only 5% containment. Our camp was 8-10 miles north of the fire, however the smoke was heavy and thick even up there. After careful consideration we decided to evacuate and head further north to Flagstaff. The only road between our camp and Flagstaff was closed so we would not be able to travel back and forth to town.
Our camp was located at the red X on the map below, with the area of the fire shown as of Friday, May 23.
As we were leaving our camp we could see the fire glow in the tops of the trees.
And the smoke billowing several thousand feet into the air.
For more information on the Slide Fire click here.
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