“The Rio Fire was a child of the weather.
It started with a bolt from the sky and exploded on the winds of a storm’s microburst to become the largest desert wildfire the state had seen up to that date.
It was a weekend, July 7-9, 1995, that few who lived in Fountain Hills or Rio Verde at the time will ever forget – watching and waiting for a possible order to evacuate or stay put. Seeing the flames against a night sky would mean no sleep for many.
A police blockade was set up at Golden Eagle Blvd. and Boulder Drive to allow only homeowners into their neighborhoods.
Others were told to turn around.
Some homeowners in northwest Fountain Hills did evacuate on their own, packing prized possessions into their cars.
Planes and helicopters were used to fight the fire. Water was sucked out of the small SunRidge Canyon pond across from Golden Eagle Park by helicopters to dump on the blaze.
The Rio Fire would burn 23,000 acres, most of that within McDowell Mountain Regional Park, sandwiched between Fountain Hills and Rio Verde.
The fire would challenge the resources of the Rural/Metro Fire Department, State Forestry Department and Forest Service.
While the blaze devastated the desert, especially in the county park, the scorecard at the end showed a win for firefighters – no deaths, no injuries and no structures lost.”
Bob Burns Jul 8, 2015 - The Fountain Hills Times

Living in Cave Creek in 1995, I remember driving to the Rio Verde area to see the aftermath of burned rubble and being quite shocked at the extent of the damage. I also remember thinking that it would be decades before the desert would come back. Twenty years later, when we moved to Red Bird Ranch, the resilient desert had been reborn from a panorama of charcoal and dirt.

Lacking much of the cholla, most of the large trees and all but a very few of the giant saguaros, the desert is once again teeming with life and vitality. The black, stubby skeletal remnants of centuries old saguaros still dot the landscape—a reminder of the true cost of the Rio Fire. The return of the numerous majestic saguaros will take longer than a few decades to be replaced. It won’t happen in my lifetime...

When a fire is man-caused, it’s always very difficult to accept the loss. If it’s Mother Nature’s doing—in this case her hurling electricity from the sky—we want to believe that the eventual outcome will somehow make up for the devastation. For us at Red Bird Ranch, the silver lining was to have an area that is near perfect for trail riding on our horses. Without the obstructing large trees and menacing cholla, the land has been perfectly prepared for scenic views for people, safe passage for the animals and trails leading in all directions.

Occasionally, we come across a saguaro (like that in the photo) that somehow survived the fire—when so many of its siblings have long since perished. Their badly charred trunks serve as a reminder that in spite of the constant threat from the harsh, dry climate of the Sonoran Desert, life finds a way.