To date, the massive Wallow Fire in Arizona has swallowed some 600 square miles of the Southwestern state across 11 days, becoming the second largest wildfire in state history and threatening two small Arizona towns, and another just over the border in New Mexico. If it's not stopped soon, the fire could also swallow what may be the most unique site in high school sports.
According to Online Sports Guys blogger Jon Nelson, who was tipped off by a report from Phoenix's KTVK News, the Wallow Fire is currently bearing down on the one and only domed high school football stadium in America. That stadium, the Round Valley Ensphere, which was built in 1991, hosts Eagar (Ariz.) Round Valley High's football and track and field teams under a 440-foot diameter translucent dome.
While there are any host of unique and notable facts about the structure, the Ensphere was ahead of its time in a number of planning respects. For one, is self heating -- it absorbs sunlight and ground heat emission to remain at a near constant temperature year round -- making it one of the most efficient domed sporting sites in the world.
Yet the Ensphere may not be around for much longer, as the Wallow Fire has forced evacuations of much of Springerville and Eagar, the town in which the Ensphere sits on the campus of Round Valley High, in the past two days.
Given firefighters' current struggles with rapidly spreading flames and the outlook of evacuees leaving the towns, the photo you see above might be the last we see of the Ensphere as it was in use for some time … if not for ever.
"I'm trying to protect my belongings as best I can," Eagar resident Wayne Lutz, who lives near where the fire has spread, told Reuters on Wednesday.
"If push comes to shove, I can be out of here in 10 minutes," he told Reuters by telephone. "The house is insured. My life is not."
All the rest of us can do now is hope that the Ensphere is insured, too.
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Marc Velkeneers Jaak van Velthoven Kees van der Ven Javier Garcia Vico Ryan Villopoto
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