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Rising Above the Ashes
Administrative, housing and research
areas on Chapin Mesa, effectively protected by fuel reduction.
Mesa Verde National Park continues to recover from the effects of the Long Mesa Fire, which burned 2,600 acres between July 29th and August 4th. Charlie Peterson, the park's chief ranger, has sent along a report on how the park stands now, with some observations on the positive benefits of fuel reduction:
Mesa Verde rises above the ashes
I am finally back at my office. Portions of the park's computer network and some of the telephones are working after being out of service for two weeks. The offices still smell like smoke. Headquarters and most of Chapin Mesa have a two color scheme, gray from the ash and pink from the 100,000 gallons of retardant used to protect the structures. The tap water comes out brown and smells like ashes.
The park and concession staff are holding up surprisingly well and have performed an incredible amount of work in a very short time. A temporary 90,000 gallon water tank was bought, delivered, and erected in one week. Half of the park was reopened on August 9th. A mile of temporary telephone cable was installed and connected in two days. Fire crews picked up, cleaned, and re-deployed 12,000 feet of fire hose in two days. Most of the surviving 68 park structures have been cleaned and are being put back on line. Two semi loads of excelsior have been placed above Spruce Tree House and Fewkes Canyon sites to stabilize the burned area above the sites. Two miles of retardant covered roads have been scrubbed and cleaned.
On July 29, a hold-over lightning fire quickly erupted into a fast moving wildfire that burned over park headquarters and the Chapin Mesa complex in three hours. Fortunately, no one was injured and no significant archeological sites were lost. However, the fire destroyed seven park structures including a park duplex residence, single park residence, sewer treatment plant, water tank roof, air quality monitoring station and recycling building. All power, water, telephone, and sewer systems were damaged and unusable. The park was evacuated except for fire fighters and a park in exile was established in Cortez. A type II team took over the fire and containment was established on August 4th. Initial estimates are over $2 million damages to the park's infrastructure with even greater damages to cultural and natural resources.
Mesa Verde has done a lot of things right and we intend to make a presentation of our success stories. We have over 500 digital photos and video during the burn over. We plan to tout our fuel reduction successes, urban interface preparedness, fire ground tactics and strategy, evacuation planning, structural preparedness, water systems management, and fire severity planning.
All the years of fuel reduction; months of preplanning for evacuation, structural fire planning, water management; with days of readiness, training, drills, and hours of urban interface tactics paid off on July 29th.
