After a number of tense days, the massive Schultz wildfire north of Flagstaff, Ariz., is finally contained.
R. Sean Evans, an archivist at the Cline Library at Northern Arizona University in town, sent this e-mail on Thursday:
The containment now is complete, and the total acreage burned is somewhere north of 15,000 acres (or 23 square miles). We had almost a thousand firefighters on the ground, and 2/3rds of the total air tanker fleet working the fire. The good news is that no properties were lost, the fire was kept out of the peak’s glorious Lockett Meadow area, and the fire never got closer than 2-3 miles from the older alignments of Route 66. It is true quite a bit of environmentally sensitive old growth burned up on the mountain however. It was quite scary for awhile — we could clearly see the flames from town.
However, all of the vegetation that’s been burned away makes the area north of town more susceptible to landslides, according to the Arizona Daily Sun. And monsoon season is only days away.
On a semi-related note, Evans also said the last day for the “Route 66 in Arizona: Don’t Forget Winona” exhibit on the Cline Library’s second floor is Aug. 13. The exhibit is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.