Tucson Region

74 Mount Graham cabins probably safe - barely

SAFFORD - Seventy-four Mount Graham cabin owners were very lucky they didn't lose their homes, a firefighter said Friday. Thanks to an abrupt weather change, the cabins that a few days ago lay in the path of fire are probably going to survive, firefighters said. But if the weather hadn't shifted from dry to humid on Thursday, the cabins could easily have burned, said Ralph Lucas, leader of a task force that has battled the Gibson fire in the area of the Turkey Flats cabins. That's because virtually every cabin is surrounded by close-in trees, with some cabins having one, two or three trees right up against them. "Three or four days ago, this community was in grave danger," Lucas said. "The fire was running up one canyon and back down into the next canyon. Then Mother Nature did its thing, the humidity went up and the fire intensity went down." Since the fire started on Mount Graham nearly two weeks ago, some thinning around the cabins has been done by firefighters, but not enough to say the community is absolutely safe, Lucas said. "It needs homeowner responsibility," he said. After the fire dies down, the Forest Service will conduct public education about the need to clear away brush, pine needles and other fireprone vegetation and will introduce a national Firewise program, said Chris Peterson, the Safford Ranger District's fire management officer. But clearing away the trees will be the homeowner's job, not the Forest Service's, although the service might provide a chipper to break the trees into small pieces, he said. 'If our guys cut down a tree and it falls on their roof, we're liable. It is their cabin. That's a legal liability I don't want to put on my firefighters," Peterson said. Gherald Hoopes, president of the Mount Graham Cabin Owners Association, said once the fire is over, cabin owners will readily remove the trees immediately around their homes. They have wanted to for some time because many of the trees are dying, but many owners still hadn't gotten written permission from the Forest Service to remove the trees -- which their lease requires. He agreed that he and his fellow owners are lucky their cabins survived: "Three days ago, I thought my cabin was going to be gone." See StarNet and Saturday's Arizona Daily Star for continuing coverage of the fire.