Polles Fire News Today

Payson took a critical second step toward protecting the town from wildfire with the introduction of a fire hardening building code to the Building Advisory Board on March 16.

Men killed in plane crash while monitoring wildfire were former fire chief, pilot Chelsea Curtis, Arizona Republic © Bureau of Land Management Matthew Miller, pilot with Falcon Executive Aviation (left), and Jeff Piechura, air tactical group supervisor. Matthew Miller, 48, and Jeff Piechura, 62, were on board the Beechcraft King Air C90 aircraft when it crashed on Saturday, according to a statement from the Bureau of Land Management.  Miller was identified in the statement ...

Piechura, 62, and Matthew Miller, 48, were on board the Beechcraft King Air C90 aircraft when it crashed on Saturday, according to a statement from the Bureau of Land Management.  Piechura was an air tactical group supervisor employed by the Coronado National Forest. An air tactical group supervisor coordinates "incident airspace, manages incident air traffic, and is the link between ground personnel and incident aircraft," Miller was identified in the statement as a fire pilot employed...

Arizona Republic Matthew Miller, 48, and Jeff Piechura, 62, were on board the Beechcraft King Air C90 aircraft when it crashed on Saturday, according to a statement from the Bureau of Land Management.  Miller was identified in the statement as a fire pilot employed with Falcon Executive Aviation, Inc, which is contracted by the U.S. Forest Service.  Piechura was an air tactical group supervisor employed by the Coronado National Forest. An air tactical group supervisor coordinates "inci...

In the shadow of yet another fire season in Payson, developers are racing to win approval to build homes without fire-hardened materials and design. Payson sits in the middle of the world’s largest ponderosa pine forest, but the Payson council hasn’t adopted the fire-adapted building code already in place in Prescott and Flagstaff. Those fire codes don’t add to the cost of a house, but make it far more likely a community will survive the close approach of a wildfire. Now, after y...

In San Juan County Fire Department Chief Craig Daugherty’s opinion, Payson dodged at least seven wildfire bullets during the 2020 fire season. But the Polles Fire caused him the most alarm because of its location, start date, fuel condition and weather. Daugherty should know — he worked in operations on that fire. The Polles Fire started on July 3, a lightning strike 11 miles west of Payson and south of Pine in “highly abnormal” fuel conditions, which fanned by extreme winds...