Fire policy is only effective when the public understands its goals. Public education and fire prevention programs are influential facets of fire policy.
My name is Ken Frederick, and I'm a public affairs officer with the Coconino national forest, and I'm also the fire information officer for the Leroux fire at this point, and it's in a mop up stage. We're standing at the point of origin, where this fire started on June 11, and it's a very common sight in a national forest, a ring for a campfire made out of rocks, but what I see here and what the problem was, was the campers did not clear the area right outside of their campfire down to mineral soil, and what we try to encourage people to do is clear out at least two feet from the edge of your fire ring down to the mineral soil. And mineral soil is just dirt from which all organic matter has been removed. Organic matter is anything that will burn, and in this case the fire was not properly extinguished, and the three people that were camping here poured water on their fire and they assumed that it was out from there, but they did not stir it. Just pick up a stick and stir it, that's to mix the ashes and water together, and then the third step is to feel it. We recommend using the back of your hand, because it's just as sensitive if not more sensitive to heat, plus if you do burn the back of your hand you've not damaged the palm, which is what you use to grasp things. Just lightly run your hand over the top of the campfire, just an inch or less away, and you'll feel any heat. And if you feel the heat, then you'll go back to Step 1. Pour on more water and stir it thoroughly, and then feel it again. And you do that until you can detect no heat. And it's important to feel in between the rocks and around the edges. And one thing we also ask people to look for is white ash. White ash is ash that is left as the fire smolders down in the wood. If you pour water on white ash it'll turn it to a gray or brownish color, and it will be distinctly different. And I can see white ash right here, behind this rock, which tells me among other things that the water was not poured thoroughly, and of course it wasn't stirred. We know from interviewing the campers here that all they did was pour water on the fire and they assumed that it was out. And that's about a 4 million dollar assumption.