Heatwave will increase fire risk in state

Lina PortmanJune 5, 2024

0 3 minutes read

Brad Widhalm was sitting in his U.S. Forest Service pickup truck on a ridge overlooking a vast swath of desert scrubland off State Route 87 when in the distance a large plume of gray smoke began rising rapidly to the north.

It was mid-afternoon Monday and down below, firefighters were mopping up the Adams fire, discovered Sunday evening. The Adams Fire grew quickly, charring more than 5,000 acres, and briefly threatened a desert community of expensive homes in the Goldfield Ranch area before being contained.

Widhalm was now keeping an eye on a new fire, the Catahoula Fire, about a mile north of Four Peaks Road.

“We have another fire growing there,” Widhalm said, getting out of the pickup to take photos to post on the Tonto National Forest’s social media pages.

The northbound lanes of SR 87 were closed for about three hours Monday while firefighters battled the Catahoula Fire using air tankers, among other equipment.

It was the third day in a row that a wildfire was discovered in the Mesa District of the Tonto National Forest between Phoenix and Payson, starting with Saturday's Spring Fire that burned more than 4,000 acres.

On Tuesday, June 4, a fourth brush fire, the Mud Fire, was discovered in the median of SR 87 near milepost 208, also in approximately the same vicinity. This fire burned about a tenth of an acre before being extinguished.

Additionally, the 1987 fire, which started on Memorial Day near SR 87 and Bush Highway, burned dozens of acres.

The Wildcat Fire, which started May 15 further west in the Cave Creek District of the Tonto National Forest, has burned more than 14,000 acres. This fire is now 100% contained.

Firefighters concluded that due to the lack of lightning, all four recent fires in the Tonto National Forest's Mesa District were caused by humans. The exact cause of the fires is still under investigation, but some of them may have been started by target shooters, said Chris Loxterman, fire management chief for the Mesa District of the Tonto National Forest.

The recent series of rapid, human-caused wildfires in the Tonto National Forest has alarmed fire officials. In 2020, the Bush Fire, a human-caused fire in the Mesa District of the Tonto National Forest, charred nearly 200,000 acres, and firefighters don't want to see a repeat, Loxterman said.

This summer's fires are fueled by two types of invasive grasses, red brome and stinknet. A thick layer of grass covered desert areas after two consecutive wet winters, and the dry, hot weather turned those grasses into a dangerous fuel, Loxterman said.

Beginning in May and June, Arizona's fire season is always dangerous until the summer monsoons arrive or until high temperatures begin to cool in the fall. But the carpet of dry grass covering desert areas of the Tonto National Forest has led to extreme fire danger this year, Loxterman said.

“With this availability, given current fire conditions and the continuity of the grass load, fires may continue at a higher rate than perhaps we have seen in the past,” said Loxterman.

At more than 2.9 million acres, the Tonto National Forest is the largest national forest in Arizona and the ninth largest in the nation. Areas on either side of SR 87 are particularly popular recreational areas used for camping, target shooting and all-terrain vehicles, officials said.

Fire conditions are expected to worsen later this week when a heat wave is expected to arrive, sending temperatures near 110 degrees.

As a result, firefighters are imploring the public to obey fire restrictions put in place May 23 prohibiting target shooting, campfires and charcoal fires in the Mesa District of the National Forest. Tonto. These restrictions will be extended to the entire Tonto National Forest on Thursday.

Firefighters are also asking motorists to make sure chains aren't dragging, which could cause sparks that could start wildfires, and not to park their vehicles in grassy areas where hot engines can also spark fires. fires, Loxterman said.

As of Tuesday, June 4, 561 wildfires in Arizona have burned more than 43,056 acres of state, tribal and federal lands, said Tiffany Davila, spokeswoman for the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management.

That's more than four times as many as the 10,466 acres burned by 522 fires during the same period in 2023, Davila said.

The high number of wildfires and acres burned, including in the Tonto National Forest, this summer in Arizona was expected because of dry grass covering the desert from wet winters, Davila said.

“The outlook for this year was the possibility of heavy fire activity south of the Mogollon Rim, through the Tonto (national forest) into southern Arizona,” Davila said. “We’re going through this right now.”

With hot and dry conditions expected to increase in the coming days, “fire activity will increase significantly,” Davila said.

Most Arizona jurisdictions will be under stage one fire restrictions starting Thursday. The restrictions prohibit campfires, charcoal barbecues, target shooting and smoking except inside vehicles, buildings or developed recreation sites.

For more information on fire restrictions, Davila suggested the public visit wildlandfire.az.gov.

Lina Portman

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