VIDEO: It’s been 35 years since the Dude Fire claimed the lives of six firefighters from the Perryville Fire Crew. Today, the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management, the U.S. Forest Service Tonto National Forest, along with residents of Bonita Creek Estates and Payson, gathered to hold a remembrance ceremony at the recently made Dude Fire Memorial.
“These men and women came as close to the gates of hell as anybody could ever come,” an official said at the ceremony. The fire was one of the deadliest in state history, and led to sweeping reforms in safety systems and practices for wildfire fighters. In June of 1990, the state of Arizona was gripped by sweltering heat.
Scorching temperatures, dry conditions and thunderstorms north of Payson would lay the groundwork for what would be known as the Dude Fire, named after Dude Creek, according to the Rim Country Museum. On June 25, 1990, a lightning bolt ignited a blaze that would grow from 5 acres to nearly 24,000 acres across Tonto, Coconino and Apache-Sitgreaves national forests.
The next day, heat, dry winds and a thunderstorm blasted the fire in different directions. The fire overtook firefighters in Walk Moore Canyon. Six volunteers from the Perryville State Prison died–five inmates and their supervisor. Five others were injured. “They’re heroes. They’re heroes. Yeah, we were all in prison for a reason: drugs, violence, whatever the case may have been. We paid our price. They paid the ultimate price,” Patrick Flippen, one of the five injured, said.
