At 12:30 in the afternoon on Monday, June 25, 1990, lightning flashed above the Tonto National Forest near Payson, Arizona, about 100 miles northeast of Phoenix. It started a fire just south of the Mogollon Rim. Within an hour, the fire had spread over five acres. By 4:15 p.m., more than 100 acres of manzanita brush, scrub oak, and old-growth ponderosa pine had been consumed in what was by then called the Dude Fire, named for Dude Creek, where the lightning had touched down and ignited the blaze. Propelled by brisk winds, the flames moved fast. Initial attack crews were called in. Helicopters dangled collapsible canvas buckets from sturdy cords and dipped them into nearby lakes and ponds to gather thousands of gallons of water and dump it on the fire. Air tankers dropped bright red slurry, a fire retardant. Neither had much effect. At 6 p.m., the U.S. Forest Service called in 18 wildland fire crews, each made up of 20 team members, from across the state and beyond, to help suppress the Dude Fire. One was a crew of inmate firefighters from the Arizona State Prison at Perryville.
Seventeen inmates from Perryville's minimum-security San Pedro unit served on the fire crew. The men ranged in age from 22 to 39. Among them were Joseph Chacon, 25, and Curtis Springfield, 24, who had both been convicted of aggravated assault; Geoff Hatch, 27, who had been in prison since 1984, charged with theft and burglary; and James Ellis, who was 34 and serving a 20-year sentence for manslaughter. Their bosses were correctional officers Larry Terra, 30, and Sandra Bachman, 43. A third crew boss, Dave LaTour, would later arrive separately.
They arrived at the scene of the fire that evening. They were assigned to protect the settlement of Bonita Creek. To do so, they were to build a "hand line" in Walk Moore canyon, just west of the settlement. They continued their work the next day, and in the afternoon, a convection draft caused by the fire collapsed, reversed and began spreading the fire towards the Perryville crew at an alarming rate. Eleven of the twenty firefighter team became trapped in the canyon and were forced to deploy their "shelters" - little more than foil coated fiberglass tents.
The fire blazed over them. When it was all over, six had died, including one (J. Ellis) who had initially survived the onslaught but left his shelter too early, walked towards the Control Road, and died from breathing the super heated air that cooked his lungs. Also included in the dead was Sandra Bachman, a prison guard overseeing the crew.
Cross for James Ellis
I stumbled upon markers for the fallen firefighters recently while exploring Walk Moore Canyon. Crosses have been erected presumably where each of the bodies was found. It is a somber place, but one that is quite deserving of a geocache.
Five Crosses near Ground Zero
When you find the geocache, you will also find two folded shelters dating from the 1990 fire. I don't know which firefighters they belonged to or whether their occupants survived or not.
Reaching this geocache requires a 1.2 mile round trip hike. Begin up the canyon on the jeep trail which ends after about four tenths of a mile. From there it is easy to follow the wash and the cattle trails to ground zero.
If you would like to learn more about this story, please visit The tragic tale of another deadly Arizona wildfire published by "The Week" in 2013. The first two paragraphs of my description come from that article, but it presents a much longer and very detailed story of the Perryville Crew's ordeal. There are also many interesting YouTube videos that can be found by searching for "Dude Fire".