Eyewitness remembers flight from Dude Fire

Photos by Jim Keyworth
While the scars from the Dude Fire are finally fading after 20 years, the devastation was overwhelming.  These are photos taken this past winter of the area east of Beaver Valley where the Water Wheel Fire raged last August and September.

By Mitzi Brabb
Connection Correspondent

Twenty years ago, a calamitous incident threatened or destroyed much of the deep woods of Rim Country. This is the story of one woman’s flight and escape from the notorious Dude Fire.

New growth has covered many of the old wounds, but there is still evidence of the 30,000-acre fire -- trees scorched black, but still standing to remind us of how the Ol’ Dude made its presence felt.

Only a few locals can now be found that recall firsthand what that week of heat and hell was like. But for long time Rim Country residents like Pam Fisher, it is a memory they will never forget.

In 1983, Fisher and her family moved into their home close to Tonto Creek, some 20 miles east of Payson off Arizona Highway 260. They were close to what was then called the Baptist Camp, but has since changed its name to the Tonto Rim Christian Camp. The Zane Grey Cabin was only a few miles away as well.

During the summer of 1990, Fisher and her husband were working at the camp, which then hosted 130 children, mostly third and fourth graders.

The fire broke out on a Monday and though Fisher’s small community was put on alert, they were told that there was no need to evacuate at that time. In spite of this reassurance, Fisher went ahead and packed up a few special items including family photos and other irreplaceable memorabilia.

As the days went by, and the sky continued to blister in orange hues overhead, Fisher and her family grew steadily more concerned. By the following Monday, Fisher’s husband and teenage boys drove up to the lookout point near the Zane Grey Cabin. What they saw was stunning.

It was late at night, and they had no problem seeing the angry flames pushing toward their home, destroying everything in its path.

“They went to the camp and laid on the dinner bell. They told them to evacuate immediately,” said Fisher.

The confused kids, freshly awakened free a deep sleep had no time to gather their belongings. They left immediately with the camp counselors. Meanwhile, the Fishers packed up their two cars with whatever they could grab, including their two dogs and the box of special belongings that Pam had prepared a week earlier. Her boys left in the cars while Fisher and her husband stayed behind to walk out the 14 horses that were left behind at the camp.

They got as far as Kohl’s Ranch, a mile or so away, when they were told to let the horses go because 260 had been closed, and the couple needed to head into town.

“You don’t understand,” Fisher tried to explain to the Highway Patrol officers. “This is our transportation.”

A few local rangers tied the horses tail-to-lead in single file, then shortly before midnight the Fishers began to ride them out on the 17 mile trip to Payson. The brilliant orange glow in the sky, indicating the chaos just behind them, helped to light the way. Although worn and weary, they were fueled by adrenalin, and tried not to look back.

Before they had traveled far on their midnight journey, trailers began to arrive, able to haul out five horses at a time. Fisher was grateful to have the help, and even more grateful that she wouldn’t have to spend the following day searching through a smoldering forest looking for lost horses.

“It’s all going to be gone in the morning,” she remembers telling her mother on the phone.

Later, she headed back to Kohl’s Ranch to help evacuate some 20 horses that still needed to be transported into town.

While at the ranch, Fisher recalls meeting up with Mel Counseller, a local artist and the caretaker of the Zane Grey Cabin, which at the time was a museum. Counseller managed to save a great deal of Zane Grey memorabilia, including rifles and books, before the flames devoured the historic structure.

Afterward, Fisher got a ride into town and was dropped off at the old Wal-Mart location at Manzanita and 260. From there she walked to the old rodeo grounds at Rumsey Park were she met up with her worried boys in the early morning hours.

The following week passed slowly, and hearts were low for the evacuees who spent restless nights sleeping on the floor of the Rim Country Middle School gym, getting well acquainted with the Red Cross volunteers who provided aid.

“The kids called home everyday. If the answering machine came on then we knew the house was still standing.”

The Dude Fire was national news; six firefighters tragically lost their lives fighting the blaze. As the days passed, families waited for news about their homes.

“We were probably the last subdivision to get back into our homes that following Tuesday,” said Fisher, who at the time was unsure of what she and her family would actually be going home to.

“The fire burned around our subdivision in the shape of a big letter C, and they were able to save the structures.”

The relief was tremendous for families living in the area. Fisher realizes these days that most things can be replaced, but looking back, she was relieved to have taken the original family photos and an unpaid bill due on the premium of a new homeowners insurance policy.

“The radio (KMOG) was saying that no buildings were involved, but we were standing in the parking lot of the camp, watching ashes and burnt shingles float down. It looked like little dots of snow with ash,” she vividly recollects.

In fact, 63 structures were destroyed in the blaze, including the one time home of Rim Country’s most beloved author, Zane Grey.

“There was no way anyone knew that it could have burned like that,” said Fisher. “A lot of lessons were learned from that fire.”