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 Previous: The K7RA Solar Update |  Next: Cosmonaut-Ham Plans to Wed While in Space |
July 18, 2003 -- Amateur Radio Emergency Service
(ARES) and Radio Amateur Emergency Service (RACES) volunteers have been
providing communications support during the Kinishba Fire in
the White Mountains of Arizona. Some 1000 firefighters are already battling the
Kinishba Fire, now reported at some 20,100 acres and approximately 20 percent
contained. Navajo County Emergency Coordinator Cris McBride, KB7QXQ, says
Navajo County DEC and RACES Officer Dave Epley, N9CZV, is heading the Amateur
Radio response, which includes two people per shift at three locations: A Red
Cross evacuation Center in Snowflake, the Navajo County emergency operations
Center in Holbrook and the Whiteriver Red Cross communications center. McBride
credits Epley with working into the early hours of July 17 to set up repeater
links so Red Cross personnel in Snowflake could communicate with their
colleagues in Whiteriver. "Until that time, the Red Cross workers could not
communicate effectively, as their cell phones would not work with the cell
phone company's system out of Whiteriver," McBride said, adding that
Whiteriver--the hub of the White Mountain Apache Tribe--sits in a
"communication hole." Some 5000 Whiteriver residents were evacuated to safe
zones on the outskirts of the fire area, but fire officials now have lifted the
evacuation order. The fire remains some two miles from a trigger point that
would result in further evacuations, however. Lightning ignited the fire on
July 13. Arizona Gov Janet Napolitano has declared a state of emergency in Gila
and Navajo counties.
| Previous: The K7RA Solar Update | Next: Cosmonaut-Ham Plans to Wed While in Space |
