Strong Arizona winds on Tuesday sparked a wildfire that created a 100-foot flame and spread quickly across dry land, forcing more than 700 homes to evacuate.
The fire in the tunnel, about 14 miles northeast of Flagstaff, was reported Sunday afternoon and had risen to about 100 acres by Tuesday morning. By sunset, it covered more than 6,000 acres or 9.3 square miles and crossed U.S. Highway 89 as it drove rapidly northeast, away from the city and through a sparsely populated area, officials said.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or other casualties on Tuesday night.
The fire was not completely contained as of Tuesday night, officials from the Coconino National Forest said. More than 200 firefighters and other personnel have been assigned to it, and a section of Highway 89 that runs north of Flagstaff to the Utah border has been closed.
Patrice Horstman, chairman of Flagstaff’s supervisory board, told a news conference Tuesday that 766 households and more than 1,000 animals have been evacuated so far.
At least two dozen structures have been destroyed and hundreds more threatened, Jim Driscoll, Coconino County Sheriff, told a news conference.
The rapid development of the fire has made evacuation efforts more challenging than before, he added, and staff from many agencies have “some difficulty in getting some people to leave” their homes despite the mandatory evacuation order.
The cause of the fire is not clear until late Tuesday night. Matt McGrath, a district ranger in the Coconino National Forest, said an investigation team would be in the area on Wednesday.
Forest fires are increasing in size and intensity in the western United States, and forest fire seasons are lengthening. Recent research shows that the heat and dryness associated with global warming are the main reason for the increase in larger and stronger fires.
Flagstaff, a college town of about 76,000 people, is about 150 miles north of Phoenix, the state capital, and about 80 miles south of the Grand Canyon.
Firefighters in the Flagstaff area were canceled on Tuesday because of “quite unprecedented winds we experienced,” Tru Brown, a fire control officer in the Flagstaff Ranger area, told reporters.
“When we talk about flames over 100 feet long, there really is no piece of aircraft or equipment that can stop it,” Mr Brown said.
He added that firefighters plan to patrol the area on Wednesday to secure as much of the uncontrolled end of the fire as possible.
The success of this effort will depend in part on how fast the wind blows. Brian Klimowski, chief meteorologist at the National Meteorological Service’s Flagstaff office, told a news conference that the forecast was for wind gusts of 35 to 45 miles per hour until about midnight. The gusts are likely to subside at night and remain weaker for several days, he added, but another weather system is expected to bring strong winds later in the week.
Add Comment