PLEASE be careful with fires in the woods.

(I tried to post this Friday, but our internet service was out due to a storm)

Picture below is from a fire a few years ago west of Payson. That's not sunset- it was the middle of the afternoon. The smoke and ash made it hard to breathe, and turned the sunlight red and yellow.

We who live in the woods understand why people who live in the desert want to come North for the weekend. Really, we do. And we welcome you.

But PLEASE, please, be careful while you're here.

We had a fire just North of Payson last week. It started last Sunday afternoon, within half an hour there was a gigantic plume of smoke, and two small communities in the woods, Beaver Valley and Whispering Pines were quickly evacuated. Here is the story in the local newspaper.

The fire is pretty well out now, the evacuees were back home by mid-week. and no homes were destroyed/no one hurt.
We were lucky this time. A headline in the paper in big print read "Dodged the Bullet". This time.

They aren't yet sure of the cause,but they say it started near the road. Sounds to me like a careless cigarette tossed out a car window.

If you come North to be in the woods, you must THINK about what you are doing. Don't be the cause of the next fire. we might not be able to dodge that bullet.