Houses RCO For Aviation Radar And Communications

Firefighting crews successfully conducted burnouts around an FAA Remote Communications Outlet (RCO), radar site, and a fire lookout tower on Humboldt Mountain, about 40 miles north of Phoenix, Arizona, protecting it from two wildfires in the area that merged into one larger fire.

The fires were ignited by lightning strikes, but the crews were able to mitigate the immediate threat to the structures using burnouts to eliminate fuels in the surrounding area. Approximately 140 firefighters were involved in the operation to build the lines around the fire, which was about a quarter mile north of the structures. However, the fire is not yet contained so a threat still remains.

Burnouts are a tactic firefighters perform by clearing a firebreak with bulldozers or other heavy equipment, then ignite small areas of brush along the firebreak to reduce the amount of fuel to stop the main fire.

The fires are being driven by high winds in the area, located about eight miles north of the Cave Creek and Carefree communities. There are no other structures immediately being threatened.

One employee of the U.S. Forest Service was evacuated from the lookout tower, as well as one FAA employee who was servicing the RCO site. RCOs are standalone unmanned facilities that relay radio communications from Flight Service Stations to aircraft.

FMI:  www.faa.gov/