30 Moon Fire

I live in the mountains. Its a blessing really to be able to walk in the mountains without having to really leave home. It does however have some down sides and wild fire is one of them. On March 20th, the first day of spring we had a wild fire started by someone burning trash in their yard. The person responsible did not have a burn permit and is now responsible for burning over 700 acres of high Sonoran Desert. I don't know the person or even his name and I am hoping to remain in this state of blissful unknowing. I am still trying to understand the thought process of this individual.

It is March in Arizona and dry. We were having wind gusts in the 15 to 20 mile range. Not really to bad and because we have some amount of air movement almost all the time and we are often unaware of how much wind we are getting. Sometimes I will watch the news and see that the wind is blowing at 10 or 12 miles and think how odd that I was not tuned in to that. But still that is no excuse.

Some 70 people were evacuated and although we did not lose any structures it was touch and go for a bit. I had my belongings packed for evacuation. In these steep canyons this could have easily been a very different and sad story
The desert is a very fragile ecosystem and it will take years for the land to recover. It will take added resources to prevent erosion during our summer rains, and it will be generations before the oak trees return in the burned areas.
It is a small town and I predict that the person who started this fire will have a new zip code by this time next year. Small towns are not too tolerant of fools.