Hello- did you leave your common sense at home?
A man has been charged with starting the $6 million Sunflower fire. A group of young men were having a bachelor party in the Sycamore Creek area in the national forest. They were shooting at targets. Steven Shiflet, 23, then loaded a shotgun shell into his gun and fired it. Sure enough, it started a fire that they could not put out.
The warning on the packing reads, "Shoots 100 feet of fire, setting everything in its path ablaze. Warning: Extreme FIRE HAZARD.
The one good thing is that he called it right in. Our friend, Rob, who mans the Mt Ord firetower was first to report it, at least to forest service fire fighters. Still, in the dry conditions from prolonged drought, the fire spread to around 18,000 acres. The only reason the fire didn't cause more damage was its location. It mostly went into a wilderness area. That made it difficult to fight but did not threaten homes.
Several news sources have reported the arrest. Here's one article at CBS5AZ.com.
The dry conditions have been publicized for several months. It's hard for me to believe these fellows would be shooting guns. Really. We would hope RVers would have more common sense, but I don't think that is a guarantee. Please be careful, especially this holiday weekend. Jaimie Hall Bruzenak
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