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Let me first thank you for the thorough and vital coverage you and your reporters provided during the recent fires here in Arizona's high country. Despite the few minor factual errors inevitable in a breaking story of this magnitude, you simply cannot imagine how much your efforts were appreciated by those of us who had to live through that terror with Phoenix television stations as our best -- and at times only -- source of local news.

Now that the fires are contained, a number of local business leaders in Heber-Overgaard, Christopher Creek and even Payson are reporting a measurable drop-off in commerce. To a certain extent, and in certain predictable segments of the economy, this is to be expected, considering the duration of the fire and the national reach of the story. Reports are circulating, however, that many of the curious who are visiting the Rim Country in the wake of the fire are being heard openly expressing their amazement at the lack of visible damage from the fire. Many have said they expected the entire area to be devastated.

Having myself just completed a two-day drive along the 100-miles of Highway 260 from Payson to Show Low, I can assure you that with the exception of the ground-cover backfire burns on the south side of the highway between Forest Lakes and Heber, one does not find any burned-over treed areas visible from the highway until one reaches Old Overgaard. From there on to near Show Low, of course, the losses are more dramatic and readily visible, as virtually the entire nation witnessed on various cable outlets.

As you must certainly know, the vast majority of the timbered acreage lost to the fire lies well to the south of Highway 260 in uninhabited regions of the White Mountain Apache Indian Reservation and of the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. Despite the fact that these areas are no closer than 50 miles to Payson, it appears there is a quite different public perception based unfortunately on impressions formed during the coverage of the spectacle.

As one who works with and for many of the afore-mentioned business people from Heber-Overgaard to Payson, to include a number of smaller mountain communities in between, I am curious to learn if your programming policies allow for the periodic broadcast of a follow-on item or two to clarify these matters, e.g., "The Towns That Didn't Burn", or possibly even an occasional human interest spot to simply help "rehab" those communities that were damaged not by the fire itself, but only by its sensational coverage.

Given its cooler temperatures, pleasant scenery and proximity to the Valley of the Sun, the Rim Country has long been a favored getaway for residents of the greater Phoenix metropolitan area. Compared to the untold man-hours dedicated to the conflagration, just a few minutes of air time would now be almost as crucial to the survivors as was your initial reportage to the victims.

Thanking you in advance for your consideration,

(Ed.)

Strawberry, Arizona