Limits on fires put up early

String of recent blazes has key officials on edge

Experts in February warned that Arizona’s coming fire season could be bad.

Now, they’re running out of adjectives to describe just how historic it could get.

A destructive fire over the weekend coupled with an unusually early round of tight restrictions guaranteed to shift weekend recreation plans are adding a new layer of unease as Arizona barrels into wildfire season.

The Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management on Tuesday implemented Stage 2 fire restrictions across a swath of state-owned land and parks in Cochise, Greenlee, Pima, Pinal and Santa Cruz counties.

The Coronado National Forest, Bureau of Land Management, Saguaro National Park, among several other

agencies, also moved into Stage 2 restrictions — the goal being to minimize some potential for human-caused wildfires.

Coconino County, where the Tinder Fire has burned dozens of structures and more than 11,000 acres since its wind-driven march began on Sunday, will move to Stage 2 restrictions Friday.

The move, usually reserved for June, strictly forbids outdoor burning and campfires, including those at developed campgrounds. It also restricts target shooting, smoking, fireworks, welding and chain saw use on public lands.

“Frankly, to the best of my recollection, this absolutely is the earliest that we’ve gone into restrictions like this,” Jeff Whitney, the Arizona state forester, told The Arizona Republic on Monday.

Whitney has been in the wildfire world for 46 years, from seasonal firefighter to incident commander. In that time, he’s also worked across the Southwest and in Arizona, supervising forests and leading fire-related projects with U.S. Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Forest Service.

In February, he described the threemonth fire outlook as “quite alarming.”

That might have been an understatement.

“We’re well on that trajectory,” Whitney said Monday, foreshadowing an active few months.

In its monthly outlook, the National Interagency Fire Center on Tuesday cited an increase in major fire potential across a swath of the Southwest, including Arizona, the Four Corners area and Southern California.

“The drought coupled with the carryover of an above average fine fuel growth from last year is expected to lead to above normal significant wildland fire potential in May and June,” experts said.

Arizona officials have been pre-positioning crews across the state to more quickly get a jump on fires. But a series of fast-growing blazes in recent weeks — each sparked by people — was cause for stronger restrictions, Whitney said. Restrictions at the city level can vary. The next step, rarely used and reserved for exceedingly dangerous fireripe conditions, involves outright land closures. There have been no public discussions about moving to that level, which could be detrimental to mountain communities reliant on summer recreation and tourism.

The fast-moving Tinder Fire had grown to more than 11,400 acres by Tuesday evening, a day after the blaze spurred the evacuation of several small communities near Payson and damaged structures in its path. It was sparked by an illegal campfire left unattended while Stage 1 restrictions were in place, officials said Tuesday.

Last week, a resident burning yard trimmings lost control of a blaze that burned a home, multiple vehicles and several outbuildings. It then turned into the Indian Meadow Fire, briefly forcing area evacuations and burning 550 acres.

Earlier in April, residents fled Winona as the Copley Fire charred 86 acres east of Flagstaff. The fire took off after a man who was burning trash lost control of the flames.