Calmer Weather Eases Intensity of Fire in Arizona
A wildfire forced hundreds of people to evacuate their homes in the north central Arizona town of Yarnell on Wednesday.
It shut down a highway northwest of Phoenix and destroyed three out buildings, but had not yet damaged any homes or caused an injuries as of early Thursday morning.
The fire comes nearly exactly three years after a 2013 incident hit the same area and killed 19 firefighters.
The blaze is reported to be near the site of the 2013 Yarnell Hill Fire, one of the deadliest wildland fires in decades where members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots perished after they became trapped by the flames. ADOT says there is no estimated time yet for the the highway to reopen. Sinclair said the fire behavior would be a factor in the decision, but also whether electricity and other services had been restored.
Light winds of 5-10 miles per hour Thursday were blowing flames away from Yarnell, said Dolores Garcia, a Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman.
Calm winds and cooler conditions with higher humidity overnight helped slow the fire, allowing firefighters to get some rest, Garcia said.
American Red Cross volunteers were expected to open an evacuation center by 6 p.m.at Yavapai College in Prescott. They were supported by 20 fire engines and several aircraft.
Authorities have ordered additional evacuations for a brush fire near Yarnell, an Arizona community where a June 2013 blaze killed 19 members of an elite firefighting crew.
“It’s frightful”, he said Wednesday evening in a telephone interview as he watched a helicopter drop water on the blaze and juggled a steady stream of calls to his cellphone.
Dolores Garcia, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Land Management, said there was no lightning in the Yarnell area Wednesday and the cause of the fire was under investigation.
Without that work, “we would not have been successful”, Williams said.
Fire fighters and one fire engine from the Town of Congress and two engines from Yarnell are now working the fire on the ground.