Page 7 - The Silver Fire

THE BLACK RANGE RAG - WWW.BLACKRANGE.ORG
The Silver Fire - As It Happened - Part 2 (Con’t)
June 10.
My mother and I took a drive the next morning. “This is from the road leaving Hillsboro—about 11 to 15 miles from the edge of the fire. If you look very carefully, that is Sawyers Peak on the left and Hillsboro Peak on the right. The two peaks are about six miles apart as the crow files. The fire looks most active over toward Sawyer’s Peak. (I can see smoke billowing up there.) Kingston is emptied of residents. There are 120 personnel in Kingston making firebreaks. Larry feels confident about Kingston. One firefighter said he hasn’t seen “crowning” —where the fire leaps from one tree crown to the
other--since 1988 in Yellowstone. They were largely unable to fight it on the ground due to terrain. They dropped 50,000 gallons of retardant on it--that was before it crossed over the range. I haven't seen an update yet but Larry tells us with a "type 2" team arrived on the scene yesterday we will get updates via inciweb.org. Governor Suzanna Martinez flew in yesterday by helicopter, spoke to residents at the Community Center, and then they flew over to see the fire. Winds are very very calm. So lucky since it has been a windy spring.”
Drove up the road to Jimmy Bason’s ranch gate. (photo top left)
“The peak on the far right is Hillsboro Peak. I am about 20 miles away from Kingston here. They are doing a back burn around Kingston and are optimistic.”
Then a trip to town, waiting for the community meeting at 7:00. (photo top of this column)
This is looking up Percha Creek in Hillsboro while on a walk...waiting for the community meeting and to see a map. (photo top right)
The two communities gather for the first community meeting.
Our first map. Larry (District Ranger for the Black Range District) spoke, the incident manager spoke, liaisons were introduced, and even the governor came to speak to us.
We’re well-connected to information sources and there are many, many community volunteers taking on every task you can think of.
IN MEMORY OF THE GRANITE MOUNTAIN HOTSHOTS
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