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<blockquote data-quote="Babagounj" data-source="post: 847299" data-attributes="member: 12952">PHOENIX -- When&nbsp; Dan Bell looks out onto the sprawling ranch that makes up his family&#039;s&nbsp; ZZ Cattle Company, he sees smoke and smoldering mountains.&quot;I&#039;ve never seen a year like this,&quot; said Bell.The&nbsp; 70,000-acre Murphy Complex Fire burning through the Coronado National&nbsp; Forest south of Tucson is the latest of seven fires since March that&nbsp; have burned through land on Bell&#039;s ranch. He estimates two-thirds of the&nbsp; ranch&#039;s grazing acres are now charred.&quot;There was nothing to&nbsp; really cause these fires to start, so one has to think that it has to be&nbsp; associated with illegal activity that&#039;s going on around the border,&quot;&nbsp; said Bell.The ranch is located just north of the Arizona border&nbsp; with Mexico, and Bell said he believes the fires were set by illegal&nbsp; immigrants as they camped or signaled for help.Five miles away, a helicopter reloaded its payload of water from Pena Blanca lake as wildland firefighters watched.&quot;The&nbsp; fuels are very dry and it&#039;s hot and windy. It takes just a spark to&nbsp; land in the grass, and then it&#039;s off to the races,&quot; said Jason Cress,&nbsp; who works for the U.S. Forest Service.Fire investigators are not saying much about how the Murphy Fire started, other than to confirm it was human-caused.&quot;It&#039;s&nbsp; currently under investigation. Beyond that, I don&#039;t know anything&nbsp; further,&quot; said Gary Roberts, who is acting as the lead public&nbsp; information officer for the Murphy Complex Fire.The fire is&nbsp; burning through a well-known smuggling route. It&#039;s the same area where&nbsp; Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was shot and killed by suspected bandits&nbsp; in December. As a result, firefighters are given a safety brief when&nbsp; they arrive on scene.&quot;That is another consideration that we do&nbsp; keep in the back of our minds, but we do feel that we get solid safety&nbsp; briefings and we just have a fire out here that we need to put out,&quot;&nbsp; said Roberts.Even as firefighters worked to extinguish hot spots,&nbsp; a lone Border Patrol vehicle sat atop a charred hill, overlooking the&nbsp; area. It&#039;s a reminder that authorities still consider the area an active&nbsp; smuggling zone.Back at the ZZ Cattle Company, Dan Bell worried&nbsp; about when he&#039;s going to be able to round up displaced cattle and&nbsp; wondered when the next fire will strike.&quot;You just never know what&nbsp; you&#039;re going to come across day by day. You may come across immigrants&nbsp; coming through, or you may come across smugglers with weapons,&quot; said&nbsp; Bell.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Babagounj, post: 847299, member: 12952"] [B]PHOENIX -- [/B]When Dan Bell looks out onto the sprawling ranch that makes up his family's ZZ Cattle Company, he sees smoke and smoldering mountains."I've never seen a year like this," said Bell.The 70,000-acre Murphy Complex Fire burning through the Coronado National Forest south of Tucson is the latest of seven fires since March that have burned through land on Bell's ranch. He estimates two-thirds of the ranch's grazing acres are now charred."There was nothing to really cause these fires to start, so one has to think that it has to be associated with illegal activity that's going on around the border," said Bell.The ranch is located just north of the Arizona border with Mexico, and Bell said he believes the fires were set by illegal immigrants as they camped or signaled for help.Five miles away, a helicopter reloaded its payload of water from Pena Blanca lake as wildland firefighters watched."The fuels are very dry and it's hot and windy. It takes just a spark to land in the grass, and then it's off to the races," said Jason Cress, who works for the U.S. Forest Service.Fire investigators are not saying much about how the Murphy Fire started, other than to confirm it was human-caused."It's currently under investigation. Beyond that, I don't know anything further," said Gary Roberts, who is acting as the lead public information officer for the Murphy Complex Fire.The fire is burning through a well-known smuggling route. It's the same area where Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was shot and killed by suspected bandits in December. As a result, firefighters are given a safety brief when they arrive on scene."That is another consideration that we do keep in the back of our minds, but we do feel that we get solid safety briefings and we just have a fire out here that we need to put out," said Roberts.Even as firefighters worked to extinguish hot spots, a lone Border Patrol vehicle sat atop a charred hill, overlooking the area. It's a reminder that authorities still consider the area an active smuggling zone.Back at the ZZ Cattle Company, Dan Bell worried about when he's going to be able to round up displaced cattle and wondered when the next fire will strike."You just never know what you're going to come across day by day. You may come across immigrants coming through, or you may come across smugglers with weapons," said Bell. [/QUOTE]

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