9/20/16 2:08 PM
002_01-16-593_fulton-closure-mapFulton Fire Temporary Closure
Overgaard, AZ; September 20, 2016 – Due to the Fulton fire activity on the Tonto National Forest, the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests, Black Mesa Ranger District has issued a temporary closure order for an area on the Mogollon Rim.
The purpose of this order is to protect public health and safety by limiting exposure to wildfire and fire suppression activities.

The Fulton Fire Temporary Closure and map (Order Number 01-16-593) outlining the closure area is located on the ASNFs website at www.fs.usda.gov/asnf and below is an excerpt from the closure listing the closure boundary.

Order Number 01-16-593: The restriction area includes National Forest System land road 512 and trails within Township 11 North, Range 14 East, Section 31, 32 and 33; Township 10 ½ North, Range 14 East, Sections 23 and 24.
Closure Boundary: Beginning at the southwestern corner of the intersection of National Forest System (NFS) Road 512 (also known locally as Young Road) and Arizona State Route (SR) 260 in Township 11 North, Range 14 East, Section 33; continuing west along the south side of SR 260 to the boundary with Tonto National Forest in Section 31, continuing in a southeast direction along the Forest boundary to NFS Road 512; north along the west side of NFS Road 512 to its intersection with SR 260.
The Mogollon Rim Visitor Center is closed due to the Fulton Fire on the Tonto National Forest and will remain closed until all fire activity has ceased. All other campgrounds and the Woods Canyon Lake Store remain open. Smoke may drift and settle into the Rim Lakes Recreation Area, Forest Lakes and Heber-Overgaard.

In the 2002 Rodeo – Chediski Fire area: T10N R19E Section 22.
East Boundary is Forest Service Road (FR) 132, North Boundary is FR 139, West Boundary is FR 9845K, and the South Boundary is FR 300.

Start Date: September 15, 2016, reported at 11:49
Cause: Lightning
Size: Approximately 1,000 acres
Vegetation: Ponderosa Pine and Juniper, with areas of moderate to heavy accumulation of dead and down logs.
Resources: 3 Engines and miscellaneous personnel

The Fill Fire is continuing to burn southwest of Pinedale in the previous Rodeo-Chediski Fire perimeter off the Forest Service 132 and 300 roads on the Lakeside Ranger District. Smoke may continue to impact Highway 260 and Clay Springs, and may be visible from State Highway 60 and U.S. Highway 260, as well as the communities of Heber-Overgaard, Linden, Pinedale, Snowflake, Taylor, Show Low and Pinetop-Lakeside.
The 2002 Rodeo-Chediski Fire was Arizona’s second largest fire at 468,000 acres and cost $43.1 million dollars to suppress. Before the fire, the Rodeo-Chediski area was a ponderosa pine forest that had experienced a large buildup of “ladder fuels”. Ladder fuels are plants, low growing shrubs and tree branches that create a ladder of fuels up the tree. When a fire moves through an area without ladder fuels, the fire will stay on the ground and burn only a few small trees and clear up dead vegetation. If there are ladder fuels, a fire can move up the tree and cause a crown fire that will burn from tree to tree. Crown fires are very devastating to the soils, wildlife, trees and plants of an area.

Wildfires burn in irregular patterns at what fire mangers call “burn intensities”. The burn intensity of a fire determines how hot a fire burns in a particular area and the amount of damage it does to the environment. Burn intensities can vary from low severity, which is a ground fire that does minimal damage to trees and plants, to high severity which can destroy all trees and plants.
Since the Rodeo-Chediski Fire burned in different intensities over the area, there are places in the fire that still have healthy large ponderosa pine and oak trees. In other areas, the fire burned at a high intensity and killed all of the trees in the area. Those dead trees eventually fell over and new trees started to grow, filling in many of the spaces. Unfortunately, while the new trees were growing, the old trees were still lying on the ground. This caused fuel ladders to the new trees, which puts them at risk if there is a new high intensity fire.
Fire managers on the Fill Fire are keeping the lightning caused fire at a low intensity to help clean up the dead trees and ladder fuels. The additional benefits to the area include grass regeneration to support elk and deer populations, more potential oak trees and pine trees regenerating, and the area will be a safer environment for firefighters to work in to suppress future fires in the area.
Information on the Fill Fire can be found on Inciweb at http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5036/.
The public can obtain additional fire information via the following:
Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests http://www.fs.usda.gov/asnf
Northeastern Arizona Public Information System https://311info.net/ or call 311 or 928-333-3412
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9/20/2016
Payson Ranger District: Andy Mandell, Incident Commander Central West Zone
E-mail: fultonfireinfo@gmail.com
Location: 28 miles east of Payson, AZ
Payson Ranger District: Andy Mandell, Incident Commander Central West Zone
E-mail: fultonfireinfo@gmail.com
Location: 28 miles east of Payson, AZ South of State Highway 260
Start Date: September 12, 2016
Cause: Lightening
Size: 1138 acres
Total Personnel: 266
Resources:
Crews: 4 hotshot crews – 3 Type II crew
Helicopters: 1Type 1 and 1 Type 3
Engines: 8 Engines
Dozers: 2

Payson, AZ – Thank you to APS for their assistance in providing a safe working environment for fire crews. Thank you to residents and businesses who went without power for two days, your understanding and cooperation was crucial to the safety of firefighters. Power was restored to Forest Lakes shortly after 8:00 p.m. last evening.
Crews made good progress on the fire yesterday. The eastern end of the fire will continue to be active, and will enter the old Bachelor Fire scar along Forest Road 9512J. Fire fighters have been successful in backing the fire down off of Hwy 260. The goal is to keep the fire backing off the rim in a consistent fire line to keep fire effects low. Due to the terrain on the rim there are some pockets where fire is being introduced to maintain that even line backing off the rim.
Bea Day’s Type I team has arrived and will assume command of the incident at 7:00 p.m. today. Additional fire crews arrived last evening and have joined forces on the ground. These additional engines and hand crews will further strengthen lines on the southern end of the fire. Crews will continue on day and night shifts providing 24 hour coverage to the fire line.
If you wish to be on our mailing list for updates or have questions, please contact us at FultonFireInfo@gmail.com. Information can also be found at http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/.