Flagstaff residents criticize official reaction to wildfire
Slow response, late evacuation notifications alleged at meeting
Community members affected by the Tunnel Fire near Flagstaff say they are frustrated and concerned about fire response and late evacuation notifications.
Flagstaff community members gathered on Saturday afternoon at Sinagua Middle School to express their concerns to public officials regarding the Tunnel Fire, which as of Monday morning has burned more than 21,000 acres of land.
Gary Sharp, a homeowner in Flagstaff, spoke at the community meeting. He told The Republic in an interview that he called local emergency services on April 17 after seeing smoke rise into the air at a distance from his home.
“I called in the fire on Easter, the 17th, and they told me that they already had crews going out to look at it. Later on that day, I saw that the smoke went away and died down significantly,” Sharp said. “On the 19th, I noticed smoke that was coming up right from that same area again. I called 911 again, and the lady on the phone told me that they had a crew out there and that it was a controlled burn.
“If it was a controlled burn, they lost control of it,” Sharp added.
Matt McGrath, a Flagstaff District Ranger for Coconino National Forest, responded to residents’ worries at the community meeting, indicating the fire crews worked on it for two days, and then winds took the fire out of control. He said the fire was first called in just before 4:30 p.m. April 17 and was responded to within 15 minutes.
“The fire response was four engines and they were
“My friend told me, I believe it was around 11:30 on Tuesday, and I didn’t get an alert until hours later right before they were coming down our streets and stuff.”
Marissa Luna Flagstaff resident
out there from 4:30 to approximately 8:30 that night,” McGrath said. “The fire was called ‘contained.’ There was no visible flame or smoke and so they went back to the station.”
McGrath said at the meeting that per standard procedure, fire crews went back to the scene of the fire on April 18 to check on it. Firefighters worked the area for most of the day and then went back to the station.
On Wednesday, firefighters returned. “They got out there, they were working the fire, that’s when the winds picked up and it got away,” he said. “The winds came up and they could not control it.”
The fire seemed contained, McGrath said, prior to Wednesday. Residents asked for a call log for the days at the beginning of the fire.
The Tunnel Fire expands, residents evacuate
The Tunnel Fire grew slightly to 21,164 acres on Sunday morning, as most residents were allowed to go home. The fire was at 15% containment as of Monday morning, according to InciWeb, a government website that tracks wildfires.
The Coconino County Sheriff ’s Office said on Thursday that an estimated 109 structures were destroyed in the fire, including 30 homes, displacing dozens of families.
Sharp says the fire “came racing down the hill” near his home as winds picked up in the area on April 19.
“I started taking care of my property, hosing things down, and I started getting text alerts for emergency, for everyone to evacuate,” said Sharp, who stayed behind to defend his home from the fire. Sharp previously prepped his home for fire emergencies by creating dirt barriers around the fences of his property and thinning out dry brush in and around his piece of land.
“The next thing I know, it seemed like minutes, it was at my back fence and the leading edge of that fire threw me to the ground and the heat was so intense,” Sharp said. “I got bruised up and banged up. My knee is swollen, my hip is swollen, my shoulder is bruised. I hosed myself off because I thought I was going to catch on fire.”
Sharp says he was able to defend his home from the fire but in the process of hosing down his property with water, witnessed his neighbors’ homes burn to the ground.
“All I could do was, ya know, just stand and watch in horror,” he said. “I was waiting for help and I never saw one fire truck, I never saw one fire crew and I stood there the whole time by myself wondering where my help was, and nobody came.”
Marissa Luna, who lives in Flagstaff, told The Republic she didn’t receive any alerts for evacuation on April 19 until emergency personnel were at her door. Her friends and other residents in the community kept each other updated on the latest news regarding the movement of the fire.
“My friend told me, I believe it was around 11:30 on Tuesday, and I didn’t get an alert until hours later right before they were coming down our streets and stuff,” Luna said.
Lucinda Andreani, Coconino County deputy county manager and public works director, said at the meeting the county emergency system is based on residents signing up for the emergency alert system. A second notification system goes out to every cellphone physically in the geographic area.
“Every time that notification goes out, it’s by geography,” she said.
By receiving a late notice to evacuate her home, Luna says she only had about 10 minutes to get her personal belongings together and gather her horses, including a foal that was born a week earlier.
“It was very stressful and I did not know that we were going to be actually evacuated until there was police in front of my house,” she said.
Luna added that she felt emergency personnel were “underprepared and disorganized,” considering the fire emergencies that community members have endured in the past.
The Republic reached out to fire and sheriff’s officials on Sunday, but did not receive an immediate response.