23 | March | 2011 | SOUTHWEST PHOTO JOURNAL

NOGALES BORDER FIRE UNCOVERS SUMMER CROSSERS

Duke fire burned along the US-Mexico Border

SOMETIMES WE JUST GET LUCKY, maybe when the “man-made” DUKE Fire started out as a warming fire for illegal crossers it ended up as a 4000 plus acres desert wildfire which scorched the desert floor right up the ridges into the pine leaving no grasses, or ground cover and essentially nothing growing. Which means, no ground cover, no camo or no shade … Just scorched earth. Duke fire burned along the US-Mexico Border.

Low intensity desert fire burns through the grasslands which holds the soil and the scrub oak which anchors everything with its root system

At a time when the desert fauna is posed to take off, all the cactus blooms and wildflowers, a fire comes along and arrests everything in its path—and leaves cleared land which runs right up to the border. The grassland of the San Rafael Valley is some of the sweetest turf in Arizona, rolling hills which are higher and cooler than the low desert, little cactus, wooded providing shade and fuel for fires, it also is home to some of the greatest amount of Homeland Security assets on the ground and in the air. Aerostat ( the spy blimp at Fort Huachuca) scans the horizon from the west, to the east is Rio Rico and the nortorious I-19 BORDER PATROL CHECKPOINT .

<img src="Tight view of the DUKE FIRE burning northeast of Nogales AZ” alt=”” />
So the DUKE FIRE was lucky, it came at a time when all the Wildfire Teams are in place and preparing for a big season, working on maintaining forest in anticipation of the upcoming burns, lots of burn offs come at this time just to lower the risk, doing it as time allows and weather permits. The Duke Fire has 190 wildland firefighters in camp and working on the fire lines, yesterday they were doing backfires along the Harshaw Road north of the ghost town of Duquesne. Today’s Wildland Fire Report said the border fire is 10 percent contained and that firefighters are prepared for a long fight. It appears they plan to burn off the entire area, which will keep them from returning later this summer, clear the land for Homeland Security, and since no housing is endangered, they will keep backfiring and let the brush burn off.