After the SET (prepare to leave) evacuation order came out for Oracle Wednesday night, 17 June 2020, we packed up some items. I continued to monitor the Bighorn Fire, about 10 miles south of us. Our wildlife camera photographed me looking at the fire with binoculars shortly after midnight.

At sunrise on Thursday, 18 June, we were still home. We did not have to evacuate overnight. This was how things looked on the mountain shortly after sunrise.

The fire had burned 31,208 acres with 40 percent containment. By mid-day the smoke (thin) was in most of the sky. Part of Oracle on the east side higher up towards the mountain top was ordered to evacuate at 1130 MST. The area included a couple hundred homes and some tourism businesses. The area is several miles from us. Oracle State Park, our IDA "International Dark Sky Park", is on the east side of town but was not in the evacuation area. The GEOS-East satellite showed smoke from the Bighorn Fire.

This is how the fire looked Thursday night.

Friday, 19 June, dawned clear with very little smoke visible. The amazing firefighters did an incredible job overnight, but the fire continued to grow to 37,000 acres with 40% containment. By mid-morning there was a lot of wispy smoke over most of the sky. Some fire retardant was visible on the mountain. At times I would see fire suppression aircraft fly over our home on their way to an area just south of Oracle.

View towards northeast


DC-10 operated by 10 Tanker Air Carrier


US Force Service KingAir 250 Twin Engine turboprop aircraft


Erickson Aero Tanker MD-87 aircraft


Erickson Aero Tanker MD-87 aircraft


Neptune BAe-146 air tanker aircraft

I had to do a local errand mid-day on Friday. I got a better view of the fire area.

Friday evening the scene on the mountain to the south was like this.

Saturday, 20 June, dawned clear but with smoke in parts of the sky from overnight backburn operations by the firefighters. Our part of Oracle still remains in the SET to evacuate area. The fire had burnt 42,798 acres and the containment perimeter dropped to 21%. While the fire has continued to grow after being started by lightning on 5 June, thanks to the efforts of the amazing firefighters no structures have been damaged. Some more good news: the electricity on Mt Lemmon has been turned back on. You can once again view the Mt Lemmon Observatory webcam to check the scene. The domes are still there.

For earlier photos see my previous reports on the Bighorn Fire.

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