The statistics I cite will certainly change, either for better or worse, as the life and death struggle between man and fire continues, but regardless of the events in the near term, this horrible destruction will be with us for the rest of our lifetimes.

Hi all,
Sorry for the quickie "form" letter, but I just wanted to update everyone on the situation up here so far. There's some bad news, as you might expect, but some good news, too. The fire farthest away, the one they're calling the Rodeo fire up between Show Low and Heber-Overgaard, is about 60 miles east of us on State Route 260. Last I heard, it had consumed 150,000 acres of our pine forest. I just heard on the radio that it's 0% contained and burning out of control toward Show Low. One of our friends has been evacuated from Pinedale. Lots of homes were destroyed there and we're praying that his wasn't one of them. We can see the smoke plumes off to the east from just about everywhere. Now, all that sounds pretty bleak, but I promise there's no danger to us as of this writing.

The second fire, the one they call Chediski, is just south of Heber-Overgaard, about 30 miles east of us if you follow the highway, but only about 15 miles as the crow flies. That one has displaced a lot of our friends, too, including Ken and Kasey Hamilton from up in Overgaard, and Patty and Larry Boeschling over at the O.W. Ranch. We aren't in any danger yet from that one either, but we sure are seeing lots of smoke, and everyone keeps going outside, watching them closely.

They just reported that the Chediski has grown to 28,000 acres and has climbed up on the Rim. They expect it to continue burning toward Overgaard. They keep saying their main concern is that the two fires are only a few miles apart and may merge to form one huge fire. One man said it would become the "largest wildfire in the world" if that happened. Our weather is hot, extremely dry and very windy, the driest in 100 years, they say.

State Route 260, which as most of you know is the main west-to-east highway between Payson and Show Low, has been closed this side of Payson for a couple days now. No people are allowed to come in, only leave. Forest Lakes, 15 miles east of us is just now being evacuated. I guess that's the bad news.

We're trying not to worry. It seemed like the smart thing to do, so I'm making a list of what things we would want to take out in a hurry. It's such a sad list, but it keeps me busy. We're really trying not to be TOO upset yet. I think what we're worried about most is some other irresponsible person, or just a nut case, starting another fire downhill from us, as fire goes uphill a LOT faster than down.

Well, as I said, bad news, good news. The good news is that, so far, we are fine.

Love,
Sam