NASA MODIS Image of the Day: June 16, 2011 – Wallow North and Horseshoe2 fires, Arizona
On June 14, the Wallow fire officially became the largest fire in Arizona history, with 478,452 acres consumed.
Of those, 4,911 acres are in New Mexico and 474,541 are in Arizona.
Property damage has been relatively low, with only 11 structures burned, but the fire has forced evacuation of nearly 10,000 people in several small mountain communities and two larger towns on the forest edge. In this true-color image, which was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Terra satellite at 18:15 UTC on June 14, the Wallow fire can be visualized as several large red hotspots surrounding a massive circular dark brown burn scar. Further south, the Horseshoe Two Fire continues to burn on two fronts in the Coronado National Forest, with a dark brown burn scar marking areas that the fire has already consumed. According to a June 15 report by Inciweb, the fire has destroyed 184,198 acres of mixed conifer, oak brush, pinyon, juniper, ponderosa pine and grasses and is 60% contained. Both fires were started by human activity, and both ignitions are currently under investigation.
