Crews brace for winds, big fire growth
FLAGSTAFF, ARIZ. » Firefighters fanned out across blackened landscape in Arizona’s high country, digging into the ground to put out smoldering tree stumps and roots as helicopters buzzed overhead with buckets of water to drop on a massive blaze.
The work has been tedious and steady — all with the recognition that strong winds will become stronger today and a shift during the weekend could turn the blaze up hillsides or toward homes on the outskirts of Flagstaff.
The 32-square-mile blaze is one of a half-dozen major wildfires that have raced across Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado over the past week. Forecasters have warned that warm weather, little to no precipitation and spring winds create a dangerous recipe for wildfires.
Those elements are “pretty much on steroids in the atmosphere’’ for today said Scott Overpeck with the National Weather Service in Albuquerque. “And by that we mean they are really cranked up. Everything is overlapping together at the same time.”
More than 500 firefighters were working in fire lines in Arizona and New Mexico, with more help on the way by this morning when the largest type management team is scheduled to take command of resources at the blaze near Flagstaff.
It’s expected to keep growing today, fanned by the wind, said Jerolyn Byrne, a spokeswoman for the team working the blaze.
Neither officials nor residents have been able to fully survey the damage, as crews on Thursday were busy wrestling a spot fire and trying to keep flames from running up the mountainside. If that were to happen, it would mean a much bigger fire with long-term consequences such as erosion and flooding.
Still, spirits were lifted Thursday as helicopters for the first time were able to start dropping water on the flames.
Aerial attacks also resumed on a pair of fires in New Mexico, where at least one air tanker was able to join the effort— something that’s likely to be impossible today.
Sustained winds of 30-50 mph are forecast there for this morning, with gusts from 60-80 mph in the afternoon from the Gila Mountains up through the Rio Grande Valley to neighboring highlands.
“There is high confidence that a widespread extreme and catastrophic fire weather event will occur (today),” the Santa Fe National Forest said Thursday evening in its latest update about a fire mostly west of Santa Fe.
“We are urging the public to stay vigilant, to continue to watch for expected changes in evacuation status and be prepared to leave in a rapid manner,” the agency said.
Sheriff’s deputies called for additional evacuations Thursday of scattered homes and closed some roads at a big fire burning in a rural area southeast of Taos but reported no structures had burned.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey on Thursday declared a state of emergency in Flagstaff’s Coconino County. The declaration clears the way for state funding for evacuations, shelter, repairs and other expenses. However, the money can’t be used to reimburse home and business owners for losses.
About 30 structures have been destroyed, but it’s still unclear how many were homes, the county sheriff’s office said Thursday.
Hundreds of people have been evacuated because of wildfires burning in the Southwest. Popular lakes and national monuments closed in Arizona.
The fire moved directly over Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument outside Flagstaff, blackening trees, and burning tools and vehicles in a maintenance yard, said monument spokesman Richard Ullmann.
The Coconino National Forest has closed where the wildfire is burning but has not enacted broader fire restrictions or closures.
Fire restrictions go into effect Friday at National Park Service sites in New Mexico, including Valles Caldera National Preserve and Bandelier National Monument.
Preston Mercer, a fire management specialist with the Coconino National Forest, said “these guys are working incredibly hard. They know the values at risk. This is their community.”
Rocky Opliger, the incident commander on a wildfire that has forced evacuations south of Prescott, Ariz., said conditions are some of the worst he has seen in nearly five decades of fighting wildland fires.
“This is very early to have this kind of fire behavior,” he said. “Right now we are on the whims of weather.”