[meteorite-list] Arizona fires

From: Dave Andrews <dandre10_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:01:35 2004
Message-ID: <3D188AF3.1EBFD2B6_at_cybertrails.com>

BobHolmes_at_webtv.net wrote:

> Not a whole lot of people are nearer the fire than our own Dave Andrews
> in Holbrook.
>
> Bob Holmes
> www.meteoritebiz.com

Greetings Bob and listees,
Holbrook is fine. As lots of you know, there isn't a whole lot of fuel for
this monster growing in these parts. I appreciate everyone's emails of
concern to me and my family, but I guess this is one instance that I'm
happy to be living in such a barren, ugly place.

We are however, receiving more than our share of smoke and ashes here.
Health services recommends us to wear a particle mask at all times, but
that's better than losing our homes like the poor souls 40 miles south of
us. In fact, Holbrook and Eager are the main sites for the evacuated
people to flee too. The high school has been turned into a safe haven and
many motel owners are offering free or reduced rates on rooms. Eager has
turned their domed stadium into a safe haven as well.

To give a little update as to the magnitude of this beast, 30,000 people
have been evacuated. This includes Show Low, Pinetop, Lakeside, Hon-Dah,
Linden, Pinedale, Clay Springs, Heber and Overgaard. So far, Show Low has
been spared, but the fire is knocking on their door being only 1/2 mile to
the west of the western border of the town. Over five-hundred structures
have been lost to the fire, and most of these are from the areas of
Heber-Overgaard, Clay Springs, Pinedale, and Linden. Pinedale and
Overgaard were hit the hardest.

The two fires, the Rodeo and Chedeski have merged and now have burned over
330,000 acres of the largest stand of Ponderosa Pines in the US. The
equates to roughly 500 square miles of forest.

President Bush has declared this a disaster area and has just landed in
Phoenix and will be making his way up to the fire to tour the area and meet
with the victims and firefighters.

Perhaps Mike Farmer's family lived on the western outskirts of Show Low or
in Pinedale/Overgaard? My prayers go out to his family if they indeed lost
their homes, and to his sister that her home remains safe. But, so far
Show Low, Pinetop, and Lakeside haven't burned yet. (That could change at
anytime with the winds we have been experiencing as of late).

For those of you more interested in this devastating event, here are a
couple of URL's for you:

http://www.azcentral.com

http://www.pinetopfire.com

The people of Arizona have really rallied around each other and have
provided many of the needs for the more unfortunate. The Red Cross and
Salvation Army have been just super too.

Just everyone pray that Show Low and the surrounding area remain safe.
Should the fire get into there, it would be just devastating to a degree I
couldn't imagine.

Best wishes to all and pray for rain!!!

Smokey Dave
Received on Tue 25 Jun 2002 11:23:31 AM PDT