|
Department of the Interior **NEWS RELEASE** Contact: Wendell G. Peacock, Incident Information
Officer
Chadeen Palmer, Public Information Officer Date: September 11, 2002 11 a.m. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Fire area on White Mountain Reservation remains closed [Whiteriver, Arizona] -- More than two months after the Rodeo and Chediski fires were ignited, quickly becoming the largest wildland fire in Southwest history, the burn area on the White Mountain Apache Reservation in the shadow of the Mogollon Rim in northeastern Arizona remains closed to public entry. The closure will remain in effect until the forest is deemed safe enough to open. Safety concerns direct the continued closure on the approximately 280,000 acres of burned lands, according to Fort Apache land management officials. About 60 percent of the 467,000-acre Rodeo-Chediski Fire was on the Reservation. Although fire rehabilitation and flood mitigation efforts have been actively pursued since the fires’ inception in late June, vast areas are festooned with standing burned timber and dangerous concealed craters left by long-smoldering root clumps reduced to ashes, reports Fort Apache Agency Fire Management Officer Ken Butler. In addition, the rugged terrain is prone to flash flooding and boulders loosened by the intense wildland fire. "Potential risks to human life and safety are as present now as when the fire was sending a convection column 40,000 feet in the sky," Butler explained. The dangerous conditions have hampered rehabilitation and salvage plans, although aerial seeding of nearly 189,000 acres was highly successful, according to Jim Youtz, Forester for the Fort Apache Agency. An additional 100,000 acres of tribal lands less impacted by the fire are expected to revegetate naturally. |