Posted on 02/28/2006 5:16:36 PM PST by SandRat
FORT HUACHUCA — Air tankers flying out of Libby Army Airfield have been “painting a line along the border” to keep a wildfire south of the international boundary, according to Bill Parks, manager of the U.S. Forest Service Air Tanker Base on the post.
The fire, being called Montezuma 1, began in Mexico around 9 a.m. Monday, and is burning along nearly six miles of the border.
The cause of the blaze is under investigation. There have been no reports of lightning strikes.
Two air tankers, former Navy P-3 Orions, which are four-engine turboprop aircraft, have each dropped four loads of retardant on the blaze, Parks said. The two planes have dropped 20,000 pounds of retardant, which some call slurry, on the blaze.
The planes came out of Prescott and Silver City, N.M., and one was to remain overnight at Libby, Parks said.
Also providing air support were helicopters that dropped water along the northern edge of the border, he said, adding the aircraft and helicopters stayed within U.S. airspace.
The fire in the United States is on Coronado National Forest land near where Cochise and Santa Cruz counties meet.
According to Coronado National Forest Fire Information Officer Laura White, the Montezuma 1 fire is the first major wildfire of the year in Southern Arizona.
The fire is between Campini Mesa and Montezuma Pass; the latter is part of the National Park Service’s Coronado National Memorial, White said.
Besides the air assets, eight fire and six water tenders, along with ground personnel are fighting the blaze on the American side, she said.
Although Mexican authorities have given permission for U.S. firefighters to enter their country based on a pre-existing agreement, no U.S. resources have entered that nation, White said.
Because of concerns about the security of the American firefighters, they were pulled off the line Monday night to an area where they could react if needed if the fire began to move fast, she said.
There are so many illegal activities along the border, that the safety of the firefighters in the United States is a main consideration, White added.
“It’s not safe to have people out along the border at night,” the fire information officer remarked.
There is a presence of federal law enforcement, and more may be added in case fighting the fire at nights is required, she said.
The blaze is estimated to have blackened about 1,000 acres of grassland and small areas of trees, most of it in Mexico.
There are three small clusters of ranch structures in the fire area, but none of them are threatened, White said.
Parks said a smaller fire of nearly 10 acres near Lochiel in Santa Cruz County “is pretty much down.”
“It’s not safe to have people out along the border at night,” the fire information officer remarked. "
Disgusting. And these people are just poor people coming here to make their family's lives better? Yet OUR firefighters are in DANGER??????
This would make for an interesting National Geographic episode:
"As the smoke drifts ahead of the creeping blaze thousands of forest creatures flee in their attempt to stay ahead of it - deer, cougars and illegal aliens placed in the park to oversee marijuana cultivation all running side by side in their bid for continued survival."
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