In San Juan County Fire Department Chief Craig Daugherty’s opinion, Payson dodged at least seven wildfire bullets during the 2020 fire season.
But the Polles Fire caused him the most alarm because of its location, start date, fuel condition and weather.
Daugherty should know — he worked in operations on that fire.
The Polles Fire started on July 3, a lightning strike 11 miles west of Payson and south of Pine in “highly abnormal” fuel conditions, which fanned by extreme winds, quickly escalated the situation. By the Fourth of July weekend the Polles Fire blew up.
“The potential was great for that fire to burn into ... communities, that’s why it went to Type 1 immediately,” he said, “You had a close call.”
If the winds had shifted at the wrong time when resources were elsewhere — or air support had to dispatch to another incident at a critical moment — or an ember start got out of control, “the situation would have been much different,” he said.