HikeArizona.COM

Effective tomorrow -- 4/22/2020 -- it looks like the Forest Service has prohibited ALL fires, campfires, and stove fires in AZ National Forests:

Not a bad idea considering fuels are likely higher in some regions this year than last.

And what would a fire operation look like with all the COVID safeguards for employees and firefighters . . ..

@DmN
it looks like COVID-19 has a role in the prohibition: "Forest Service officials are taking the necessary steps to ensure first responders are available to safely respond and manage incidents. This campfire restriction will prevent the drawdown of fire and medical resources to unwanted human-caused wildfires and reduce firefighter exposure to COVID-19 during the current pandemic."

https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/coconino ... 2whUZipzLo

DixieFlyer wrote: ↑Apr 21 2020 9:40 am Effective tomorrow -- 4/22/2020 -- it looks like the Forest Service has prohibited ALL fires, campfires, and stove fires in AZ National Forests: fseprd727999.pdf

It should be noted that the following EXEMPTIONS apply to this Order Number 03-00-00-20-006 :
EXEMPTIONS:
Pursuant to 36 C.F.R. § 261.50(e), the following persons are exempt from this Order:
1. Persons with a Forest Service permit specifically exempting them from the effect of this
Order.
2. Any Federal, State, or local officer, or member of an organized rescue or fire fighting
force in the performance of an official duty.
3. Persons using pressurized liquid or gas fueled devices (stoves, grills, or lanterns).

It's @jimh 's long-sought-after dream come true!

DixieFlyer wrote: ↑Apr 21 2020 11:41 am it looks like COVID-19 has a role in the prohibition

Read that as well, not surprised.

Hopefully the rest of the normal fire restriction will come soon. There's a lot of shooting going on out there.

chumley wrote:It's @jimh 's long-sought-after dream come true!

That poor guy from Chandler who joined in 2003. If he ever logs in again he's probably going to see a whole bunch of things that he is linked to that he never did and has no clue about.

Since I know you meant me Todd, this is not my dream. I suspect you're referencing earlier posts I made about annual fire restrictions being the norm, however I seem to recall that I thought they should go into place in May or around memorial Day and be a routine that was standard until rescinded by the forest service. Also I don't think I've ever had an bias expressed against stoves.

[ Permanent Spring Fire Ban ]

I noticed I started that thread in March of 2011, which was a couple of months before the Wallow Fire. Funny, I feel like that fire supports my argument. I really don't care if you don't like everybody being punished, because right now it sure as hell seems to me like the entire world is being punished because of China's bad behavior.

About a week ago the Flagstaff weather service had a story talking about how this winter and spring has been above normal for precipitation to spite the dry January, so this would be a candidate year to have no fire restrictions.

@Jim_H

Jim_H wrote:o this would be a candidate year to have no fire restrictions.

Or to have more severe fire restrictions. All that lushness from our "above" normal precipitation is now starting to dry out and it's going to become a really beneficial fuel to spread a fire quickly.

Propane fueled campfire allowed ?

@Nighthiker
No, stoves are banned. This is effectively a camping ban, for Corona.
@outdoor_lover
Perhaps, but with regard to the 2011 annual Spring fire ban I was talking about in March of 2011, a wet winter and spring would be a lower risk for forested areas. The low desert exotic grasses being different from stuff over 5000' or so. It was surprisingly wet, after all. I wonder how the weather and fuels will be between now and the start of summer thunderstorm rains? Last year we had no summer rain, this year with California's northern 2/3 and most of Nevada being substantially drier than normal, I think we will have an early and active summer rain season.

@Jim_H
The wording is tricky. A stove fire is not allowed.. whatever that is (like a solo fire stove maybe) but below that in exemptions it says gas or propane grill or stove is ok still.... unless I’m reading it wrong.

kelly14 wrote:The wording is tricky. A stove fire is not allowed.. whatever that is (like a solo fire stove maybe) but below that in exemptions it says gas or propane grill or stove is ok still.... unless I’m reading it wrong.

Those little square fold-up firebox wood burning backpacker stoves for example are prohibited. Technically a Trangia or similar alcohol burner stove would be prohibited as well. Even though Trangia's in particular have a rotating simmer cap that effectively doubles as a shut-off; you can actually put out a Trangia faster than most compressed gas stoves. Those seem like a grey area and depend on who is defining what is a shut-off valve. I imagine part of the reasoning about shut-off valves is that compressed canister stoves do not allow for ignited fuel to be accidentally spilled out onto a field of dry grasses.

Anything LPG related i.e. 4 season mix canisters are fine - they all use hard shut-offs.

Jim_H wrote: No, stoves are banned. This is effectively a camping ban, for Corona.

Even if they were (but they're not), it's not a camping ban. There is no shortage of miserable hiker trash out there who eat nothing but cold soaked meals on the trail.

Would it really have been all that difficult for the author of that order to have included the adjective "wood" before the stove or perhaps non gas or non propane? Oh, well.

@Jim_H
Lol, I have that thought every single year when the restriction orders come out.

@DixieFlyer
OK, who's got the list of cool places you can go that are not within the restricted zones, and still hike and camp with a fire?

@ALMAL
I'm afraid that I don't have a list, but it would have to be somewhere outside of a national forest

@ALMAL
Wait a week and it'll be easily found by following the huge plume of smoke rising above it and air tankers flying into it.

@ALMAL
That would be the "other" guy. BLM. But even with that you would have to be careful as BLM may intersect some wilderness that is joint with either the FS or the NPS.