Tucson Region

Telescopes, Madera are evacuated

GREEN VALLEY - The Florida Fire has expanded to 11,375 acres, forcing the evacuation of Madera Canyon and the telescopes atop Mount Hopkins. The blaze's mounting size and complexity also prompted federal officials to transfer the suppression effort to a more sophisticated management team. By Wednesday night, flames were within a mile of both the developed portion of Madera Canyon and the Mount Hopkins observatories. But officials expressed cautious optimism that structures in both locations would be spared, even if the fire reaches there. Thunderstorm activity in Southern Arizona on Wednesday evening failed to dump any significant rain on the fire, which began July 7 when a lightning bolt ignited a standing dead tree in remote, rugged wilderness atop the Santa Rita Mountains south of Tucson. Humidity levels rose to 30 percent and helped to slow the flames' advance Wednesday. But radar imagery suggested two waves of outflows from thunderstorms generated winds in excess of 30 mph in the Santa Ritas, said Chris Rasmussen, a National Weather Service meteorologist. There's a chance of more thunderstorms today. Firefighters have already conducted a burnout from a containment line on the fire's northeastern flank. That's led officials to declare the blaze 20 percent contained. There is no estimate for full containment. There are 792 personnel assigned to the fire, including 16 elite "hotshot" crews and five other 20-person crews. Starting today at 6 p.m., the suppression campaign will be managed by a so-called Type I team led by Dan Oltrogge. Oltrogge's team has fought many of the high-profile fires in Arizona: this summer's Cave Creek Complex, northeast of Phoenix; the 2004 Nuttall Complex on Mount Graham; the 2003 Aspen Fire in the Santa Catalinas and the 2002 Rodeo-Chediski Fire in the White Mountains. Madera Canyon, a popular hiking and picnicking area known to birders across the globe, has a dozen or so homes, three lodges and a number of sheds and other unoccupied buildings. All residents left the canyon by noon Wednesday and there was no need to open an evacuation center, said Louis Chaboya, director of emergency management for Santa Cruz County. Sprinklers have been set up around all 30 structures and will be turned on if the fire gets near enough. Crews have already constructed a thin fuel break one-quarter to one-half mile east of the cabins and lodges. Larry Raley, the outgoing incident commander, said he has confidence in firefighters' ability to defend the canyon's structures. As the fire backs down into the canyon, he said, crews plan to use the containment line as a starting point for intentional fires that will travel uphill to meet the main blaze and rob it of fuel. "I believe it is a secure line," he said. "We will be able to perform burnout operations along that line to prevent the fire from crossing it and entering the residences." Strong winds coming out of the north Tuesday night pushed the fire even farther south past a planned containment line near the top of 9,453-foot Mount Wrightson. That's raised the chance that the fire will hook around and approach Madera Canyon from the southeast, Raley said. It also increased the danger to seven telescope projects on Mount Hopkins, home of the Smithsonian Institution's Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory. Spokesman Dan Brocious said the largest instrument, the 21-foot Multiple Mirror Telescope, probably would fare well if flames reached the site. "It's a metal-clad building, it's insulated and it's on a summit without much fuel surrounding it compared to the other sites," he said. Other instruments are on a ridge 900 feet below and have fuel on either side of them, though crews have been clearing the area, he said. Smoke blanketed the Santa Cruz Valley for much of the day, and the fire's progression downhill prompted some worried calls to fire officials from Green Valley-area residents. "There's absolutely no danger of this fire entering into Green Valley," said Chuck Wunder, operations chief for the Green Valley Fire District. But because the fire has already overrun Mount Wrightson, authorities have alerted ranches at the southern base of the Santa Ritas that they may be threatened.