Kinishba Fire, Kinishba Ruins, White Mountain Apache Rez, Summer 2003

In the fall of 2002 I moved to Whiteriver, AZ to teach school at Canyon Day Elementary School. My old friend Ron Russell was the principal and I needed to do an Ed Leadership internship to finish up a Masters Degree I was working on. I thought I wanted to be a principal. He welcomed me with open arms. I was thrilled to be there and thrilled to have the internship. It is a beautiful, beautiful country with an excellent river for fishing. If any of you know Jenny Russell she will attest to the quality of the river. My mother was living with me at the time and she moved down there with me.

There were some old ruined pueblo style building, Kinishba Ruins, about a mile from my house at Canyon Day. They say it is an Anasazi Indian settlement which was abandoned in the 14th century,

You know me, I love this kind of stuff.

In June of 2002 two fires started in the mountains near Whiteriver. These fires, the Rodeo Fire and the Chesdiski Fire both started on the Rez. The Rodeo fire was started by a crazy guy who wanted to get work as a firefighter. The Chesdiski was started by a tourist whose car had conked out so she set a fire hoping to get the attention of a news helicopter that was flying around near her. The two fires finally grew into one, the Rodeo-Chesdiski Fire, and it burned out of control until July 7. Half a million acres were burned. It threatened towns all around the area, Heber, Overgard, Show Low, Lakeside, Pinetop, Whiteriver, and all the little communities on the Rez. It got pretty close to Show Low and they evacuated thousands of people.

The very next summer we got another fire, the Kinishba Fire. It was so close to my house in Canyon Day I could sit in my carport, prop my feet up on my little silver Honda, it was brand new, and drink dietCoke, eat bonbons, and watch the fire.

The firefighters set up these big camps with tents everywhere. The used our school. The Phoenix TV stations sent those big satellite trucks. They were parked everywhere. Big fire fighter 4 wheel drive transport trucks were everywhere plus dozens and dozens of pickup trucks. There were big tents for dining, a big stainless steel semi for cooking, and a big stainless steel semi for bathrooms. Small one man tents were everywhere some with legs sticking out. The fire fighters came in from a shift and fell exhausted into their sleeping bags. When they woke up they cleaned up, ate up, and went back to the fire. Fire teams came from all over the world. The Apache firefighters at Whiteriver are a Type One Hot Shot crew. That's big stuff.

Every evening the fire honchos would hold a big news conference on a stage they had set up outside the school building. It had TV lights and the whole deal.

This fire forced the evacuation of more than 3,000 people and prompted the governor to declare a state of emergency for two counties.

In the first couple of days it burned 12,700 acres and was headed to the Kinishba Ruins.

These helicopters are the coolest things you ever saw. They look like big mosquitos with a long proboscis that they stick down into any body of water while the helicopter hovers above. It sucks up water until it's tank is full, then it flies back to the fire where the water is sprayed over the burning trees and shrubs. It then flies back to the pond or lake or river or irrigation ditch or whatever, sucks up more water and douses more fire. So cool. It went so fast that with a pair of binoculars one could stay pretty well entertained just watching.

These

The helicopters are called Skycranes.

These guys are the Navajo Hot Shots who came to fight the fire.

The Kinishba fire never touched Kinishba. It burned for about a week taking about 25,000 acres I think. Not sure. It was started by lightening.