Greer Fire is burning near sites of Wallow and Rodeo-Chediski fires, Arizona's largest

Yahoo

14-05-2025

The Greer Fire in eastern Arizona was burning near the sites of Arizona's two largest modern wildfires, the Wallow Fire and the Rodeo-Chediski Fire, which together burned more than 1 million acres.
The fire, reported May 13, was moving within the outer edges of the 2011 Wallow Fire, the largest fire in Arizona history. Two campers started the blaze on May 29, 2011, in the Bear Wallow Wilderness Area near Alpine and over the next month, it scorched 538,049 acres.
The Greer Fire is burning northwest of Alpine, within the small community of Greer.
In 2011, residents of Alpine, Blue River, Greer, Nutrioso, Sunrise, Springerville and Eager were evacuated as the Wallow Fire exploded outward. Overgrown forests helped spread the flames, charring pine forests and stands of aspen.
On one evening, residents of Alpine rushed to evacuate as they watched flames crawl over the tops of nearby mountains and then spread down into the valley. A forest-thinning project above Alpine slowed the spread of the fire, giving residents more time to pack up and leave.
In all, 32 homes were destroyed in the fire's footprint, along with about 40 other buildings. No lives were lost in the fire.
Nine years earlier, in 2002, the Rodeo-Chediski Fire raced across 468,638 acres west of Greer, pushing just south of Show Low and through the communities of Heber and Overgaard. The Rodeo Fire was reported on June 18, 2002, started by an out-of-work wildland firefighter who was later convicted of arson. The Chediski Fire was reported on June 20, 2002, east of Payson, started by a lost hiker trying to signal a television news helicopter.
The two fires merged on June 23 and continued to burn until July 7. In those weeks, about 30,000 people were evacuated from communities in the path of the flames.
Rodeo-Chediski burned 465 homes and buildings in the communities, leaving some neighborhoods burned to the ground. No lives were lost in the fire.
In the years since both the Rodeo-Chediski and the Wallow Fires, state and federal agencies have worked to restore some of the landscape and also continued to thin overgrown forests in an attempt to slow future fires. Smaller fires have started in the burn areas of both fires since then.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Greer Fire is burning near sites of Wallow and Rodeo-Chediski fires