Aspen Fire | |
Date: | – |
Location: | Summerhaven, Mount Lemmon, Arizona |
Coordinates: | 32.437°N -110.7644°W |
Pushpin Map: | USA Arizona |
Area: | 84750acres |
Buildings: | 340 |
The Aspen Fire burned from June 17, 2003, for about a month on Mount Lemmon, part of the Santa Catalina Mountains located in the Coronado National Forest north of Tucson, Arizona, and in the surrounding area. It burned 84750acres[1] (132.4 sq mi) of land, and destroyed 340 homes and businesses of the town of Summerhaven.
Damages to electric lines, phone lines, water facilities, streets and sewers totaled $4.1 million. Firefighting cost was about $17 million, and the Forest Service is spending $2.7 million to prevent soil loss.
In 2002, the year before the fire started, Congress had been requested to allocate about $2 million to cover the implementation of fire prevention measures in the Coronado National Forest. However, that allocation was reduced to about $150,000 in the Congressional budget process.
There were originally suspicions that the fire was caused by a lightning strike,[2] but it was eventually determined to be human-caused.[3]