Forward spread stopped on Ponderosa Fire

By Richard Haddad, Roundup Publisher October 1996 through March 2007

Wednesday, July 7, 2004

The forward spread of the Ponderosa Fire has been stopped and firefighters are now working to extinguish spot fires.

All evacuations are being overseen by the Gila County Sheriff's Office.

The fire forced the closure of East State Route 260.

"They're going to do that as soon as they can," Emily Garber of Tonto Fire Information said. "Mainly what they are trying to work on right now is there's a lot of heavy equipment - they're trying to get that out of there. But as soon as they do they'll reopen it."

*UPDATE: Highway 260 has been reopened.

An APS power line was burned out causing the loss of power and telephone use from east Highway 260 and the intersection of control road (Forest Road 64) east through the communities of Christopher Creek, Kohl's Ranch and Bear Flat communities.

"Power is out for all the communities east of the Ponderosa Campground, including Young," said Jan Parsons, Regional Director of APS. "We have six poles to replace and six spans of wire to put up. Hopefully, we'll have that done by 1 a.m. (Thursday), which is pretty awesome."

The fire was reported at 11:10 a.m. by the Diamond Point Lookout. As of this post the fire is being reported at 90 acres.

Bob Ortlund is the incident commander assigned to the Ponderosa Fire.

Resources originally dedicated to the fire include:
3 type 1 Hot Shot crews
3 Type 2 Crews
Numerous Engines and Dozers
2 Type 1 Helicopters
1 type 2 Helicopter
5 Type 1 Air Tankers
4 Single Engine Air Tankers (SEATS)

Fire officials said they hit the blaze hard and they now have a containment ring around the fire.

"All the air resources have been released," Garber said.

According to the Gila County Sheriff's Office Dispatch, an evacuation center has been set up at Rim Country Middle School. Public information phone numbers for anyone seeking information concerning the evacuation center: American Red Cross 1-800-842-7349, or 928-474-4511.

For additional information, check the Tonto National Forest website at www.fs.fed.us/r3/tonto, or call 602-225-5200.