Arizona Wildfire News
Arizona experiences wildfires every year due to its hot and dry climate, combined with the abundance of vegetation and the increasing urbanization of the state. The wildfire season in Arizona typically runs from May to October, with peak activity occurring in June and July.
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In recent years, Arizona has experienced some significant wildfires that have caused damage and threatened homes and communities. In 2020, the Bush Fire burned over 193,000 acres in the Tonto National Forest, becoming the fifth-largest wildfire in Arizona's history. The same year, the Bighorn Fire burned over 119,000 acres in the Santa Catalina Mountains near Tucson.
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In 2021, the Telegraph Fire burned over 180,000 acres in the southeast part of the state, becoming the fifth-largest wildfire in Arizona's history. The fire forced several communities to evacuate and destroyed many homes and structures.
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Wildfire prevention and management are critical in Arizona, and the state has implemented various measures to reduce the risk of wildfires, including prescribed burns, fire suppression, and Firewise practices for homeowners and communities.
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Here are some of Arizona's biggest wildfires, listed by acreage burned:
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Rodeo-Chediski Fire (2002) - 468,638 acres
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Wallow Fire (2011) - 538,049 acres
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Cave Creek Complex Fire (2005) - 248,310 acres
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Willow Fire (2004) - 119,500 acres
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Bush Fire (2020) - 193,455 acres
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Chiricahua Fire (2011) - 87,903 acres
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Telegraph Fire (2021) - 180,564 acres
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Aspen Fire (2003) - 84,750 acres
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Murphy Fire (2009) - 69,911 acres
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Horseshoe 2 Fire (2011) - 222,954 acres
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Hiker owes $300,000 for Arizona wildfire he started
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There’s yet another dumb hiker in the news for starting a wildfire to signal rescuers after he got lost. Philip Powers, a resident of Tempe, Arizona, argued in court that the fire he set in 2018 was necessary to save his life. But a federal court found that he was so unprepared that he created his own emergency.
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Backpacker Magazine reported that the 37-year-old hiker in the rugged Sycamore Canyon Wilderness northwest of Sedona, in late May 2018, had barely slept and had muscle cramps in his legs. He’d also found a rattlesnake in the sheepherder shack where he’d overnighted. It was 14 miles back to his car, he was out of food and water, and he had no cell signal. Powers later told a USFS law enforcement officer that he feared he was “done.”
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2018 Sycamore Fire in Arizona, looking north. USFS photo.
He’d tried the night before to start a signal fire, but it quickly burned out. He tried again, piling dry foliage around the base of a snag and firing it up with his Bic lighter. He hoped that the dead tree would go up in flames, and someone would see it and come to his rescue. But the fire got away, tripled in size in one day, and quickly grew to 230 acres; the Sycamore Fire took over a week to contain. A federal district court recently convicted him for his actions in 2018, and Powers now owes the feds almost $300,000 in restitution — and a year of probation.
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Fronteras Desk reported that Judge Camille Bibles didn’t buy the hiker’s excuses. “Had Powers engaged in adequate preparation in planning and carried adequate water, food and gear, he would not have found himself in his circumstances,” she wrote. “Thus, the court finds that Powers’ necessity defense fails, as he created the conditions necessitating the commission of the fires, and his subsequent rescue.”
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Powers faced 3½ years in prison for the seven misdemeanors he was charged with. Judge Bibles sentenced him to seven concurrent one-year probation periods instead. He also owes the Forest Service more than $293,000 in restitution, which he will make in $200 monthly payments.
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In addition, the judge ordered Powers to complete a hiking safety course.
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According to 12News in Arizona, he’s already filed an appeal of his conviction.
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Officials warn of wildfire risk as Southwest US dries out
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Snowcapped mountains in the Southwestern U.S. signal a possible delayed start to the wildfire season for some higher elevations, but officials in New Mexico and Arizona warned Wednesday that dry, windy conditions in other areas are increasing wildfire risks and prompting red flag warnings.
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With leaves crunching under her feet and the wind starting to kick up, New Mexico’s governor warned that if the state wants to avoid a historic wildfire season like last year’s when more than 1 million acres (400,000 hectares) burned, she said everyone will have to be prepared.
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“You can start to think about the landscape in New Mexico and the extreme drought here,” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham told those gathered at the Rio Grande Nature Center State Park. “We are at extreme risk.”
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New Mexico is coming off a devastating wildfire season that included the largest blaze in the state’s recorded history — a conflagration sparked last spring by the U.S. government as forest managers were trying to clear out dead and overgrown vegetation in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.
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A pair of prescribed burn operations went awry and fierce spring winds fueled the flames, displacing thousands of people and resulting in Congress approving nearly $4 billion in recovery funds. New Mexico lawmakers also recently passed legislation creating a low-interest loan program to help communities repair or replace public infrastructure damaged by wildfires or subsequent flooding.
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The governor noted that Alaska was the only state to have more acres burn in 2022 than New Mexico.
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New Mexico already has seen more than 100 fires this year, and officials in neighboring Arizona have reported responding to dozens of starts over the last month, all human-caused.
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“We hope that’s not an indication of what’s to come, but with the heavy grass crop down there, we are staying vigilant and on alert,” Tiffany Davila with the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management said of the southern part of the state.
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New Mexico State Forester Laura McCarthy didn’t want to predict the kind of season the Southwest might see.
“If we’re learning anything from last year, it’s that the past is not really a good indicator of what’s coming in the future,” she said. “And I think that if we get two, three or four weeks of really hot, dry weather with winds, we’re right back in it.”
Aside from preparing firefighters and homeowners, McCarthy said state and federal land managers have a growing challenge to cut and remove overgrown brush and trees “on a scale we’ve never done before” that will include more prescribed burns and thinning projects.
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The U.S. Forest Service, following a review last year, is implementing new policies and procedures for its prescribed fire operations. The planning process now includes a new template that calls for plans to be validated and updated to ensure that the information is current and the most recent science and modeling is incorporated.
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For areas with a healthy snowpack, any fire activity in the high country may be delayed until late May into mid-June, which means the window for wildland fires could be shortened, Davila said.
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Still, Davila joined New Mexico officials in urging caution, especially in those areas still mired in drought.
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“Even with all of the snow and rain the state received, it is a temporary fix to a long-term drought issue,” she said.
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Southwest Wildfire Awareness Week: How local agencies prepare for Arizona wildfires
Temperatures are starting to warm up, which means wildfire season is right around the corner. APS officials are giving people tips on how to prevent fires before they begin.
By: Jamie Warren
Posted at 10:36 AM, Mar 30, 2023
and last updated 10:36 AM, Mar 30, 2023
PHOENIX — With the summer months ahead, the risk of a wildfire goes up. That's why during Southwest Wildfire Awareness Week, officials are getting the word out about ways to prevent fires in our community.
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The Scottsdale Fire Department says it starts with creating a defensible space around your home. That means no dead branches, overgrown bushes or grasses within 15 feet.
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You'll also want to keep the gutters and roof clear of any leaves. Keep a garden hose, with the nozzle attached, outside.
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"We're doing the same thing on our roadways up here in North Scottsdale," said Scottsdale Fire Captain Dave Folio. "We're creating defensible spaces for us. We're doing fuel mitigation projects where we thin out the roads. That way if we have a vehicle that's going up the road and they're dragging a chain, please don't do that. Be really careful with dragging your chains because they throw sparks out into the desert."
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APS crews tell ABC15 that they also create defensible spaces around power lines.
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"We are doing our part to create defensible space around our poles, clear vegetation, maintaining our transmission right aways such as this one," said Aaron Stafford with APS. "We don't want anything growing up into the lines that can cause a wildfire or cause a power outage."
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Last year was a busy time for wildfires in Arizona. The biggest in 2022 was the Tunnel Fire that burned thousands of acres north of Flagstaff.
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According to data from the Department of Forestry and Fire Management, 80% of fires were caused by humans.
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Despite heavy localized rain, risk for wildfires in Arizona continues to increase
SUELEN RIVERA
Mar 28, 2023
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PHOENIX — A risk for wildfires in Arizona continues to increase, despite a wetter than normal winter that brought heavy rain across the state.
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Chances for wildfires, the majority of which are sparked by humans, will increase as temperatures also rise throughout spring and into the summer months, state officials said during a press conference Monday highlighting Southwest Wildfire Awareness Week at the State Capitol.
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A particular area of concern for state officials is southern Arizona, as the grass crop is loading heavier than usual and the monsoon forecast for the year is projected to be between normal and below normal.
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“It is a concern, absolutely, and I think especially because the perception is that it’s been really wet and the risk isn’t as high, but all of that green is going to become fuel, so we need folks to be extra aware and extra cautious,” Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs said during the press conference.
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For now, the focus surrounding wildfires has turned to prevention efforts with forest officials working on mitigation efforts for critical areas most at risk and resources headed toward residents to educate them on risk reduction projects and evacuation orders.
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Other efforts such as being prepared with fire service partners and treating the landscape are also underway, Arizona State Forester Tom Torres said during the press conference.
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“People want to be in the forested parts of the state … Part of the challenge is to educate people that fire is natural in the state and the location of our buildings and our infrastructure, that is typically not natural,” Torres said.
“And so we have development and people living and people recreating in places where fires are natural, so it’s managing those multiple challenges to keep people aware of what some of the challenges are out there.”
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Of the 1,444 wildfires reported across all state land jurisdictions in 2022, 941 were human-caused, leading state officials to remind residents and visitors of simple steps that can be taken to ensure safety, according to a Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management press release.
Those steps range from never burning debris on windy days or pulling a vehicle off the road and into tall vegetation to drawing out a campfire with water and remembering that target shooting is never allowed on state trust land.
“If you live in or are visiting an area at risk of wildfires, you must be prepared in the event an evacuation is ordered,” Hobbs said.
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“That means having a to-go bag ready and having an escape route planned. Always pay attention to law enforcement and fire notifications. An evacuation order means that you must leave immediately. Again, we have to do everything we can to ensure that we keep ourselves and each other safe.”
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Gov. Hobbs and Arizona fire officials discuss wildfire season preparations
PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) - Wildfire season is almost here, and Gov. Katie Hobbs, along with the Department of Forestry and Fire Management, held a wildlife news briefing to talk about the threat Arizona faces this Spring and Summer when the weather heats up. “We’ve seen a lot of rain this year, but we know temperatures will soon start warming up, meaning we have a high likelihood for fire activity throughout our state,” Gov. Hobbs said.
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State forest and fire management officials insist they’re doing all they can to control potential trouble spots around the state. “We’re doing a number of things,” said state forester Thomas Torres. “First is the reduction of those fuels around communities, especially in the forest and in other parts of state. Another thing we are doing is educating people, things people can do around houses and communities especially areas prone to wildfire.” Torres said 80% of all wildfires are caused by people.
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Officials also shared safety tips to wrap up the seasonal outlook report. Among the things Arizonans can do to reduce the risk of wildfire are:
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Never burn debris or yard waste on windy days
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Never pull a vehicle off the road into a tall brush
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Always put campfires out completely
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Create defensible space around the home, cutting back trees and bushes
Another big concern this upcoming fire season is a lack of resources. A number of fire districts and response teams are significantly understaffed and in desperate need of more firefighters.
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Fire Chief Scott Freitag with the Central Arizona Fire Medical Authority said they were unable to respond to half of their wildfire calls last year because of a lack of personnel. “If we are not funded, we cant respond, and we saw that last year and we’ll see it again this year,” said Freitag. “Many agencies are stretched too thin and are unable to provide initial response resources.”
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According to Freitag, the Arizona Legislature has passed a number of laws in the past few years that have significantly reduced funding for wildfire response and prevention. Back in November, Arizona voters rejected Prop 310, which would have provided more funding for Arizona fire districts.
Last week, the U.S. Drought Monitor updated Arizona’s short-term drought conditionswith a decrease of 4% in the “abnormally dry” category, but another 25% of the state remains an “abnormally dry” state. With regard to snowpack, Arizona’s is at its 4th highest season-to-date level since record-keeping started in 1987. “While the snow and rain have helped significantly, the potential for large-scale, possibly long-duration incidents exists in southern Arizona due to the overgrowth of fine fuel such as grasses and brush,” said DFFM Fire Management Officer John Truett.
While there are no restrictions in place so far, it is up to everyone to prevent wildfires by paying attention to the weather, being aware of their surroundings, putting out all campfire and fire pit blazes, and more.
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You can stay up to date on Arizona’s drought conditions by downloading our First Alert Weather app. You can check rainfall totals, view current conditions, and much more. Click/tap here.
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'The impact is still severe': Arizona officials urge caution ahead of wildfire season despite improved drought conditions
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Gov. Katie Hobbs and state fire officials gathered outside the Arizona Capitol on Monday afternoon where they warned that the state would not be immune to wildfires in the coming months despite an unusually wet winter.
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“Drought conditions have improved lately, but the impact is still severe in the state,” John Truett, a state fire management officer for the Department of Forestry and Fire Management, said. “As temperatures warm up, fire activity will increase including in southern Arizona where we’ve had an abundant amount of moisture and the grass crop is heavier loading than normal.”
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Truett added that while heavy rain and snowfall in northern Arizona improved drought conditions somewhat, the increased growth of vegetation means more potential fuel for large-scale fires as temperatures increase throughout the summer.
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Truett noted that the National Weather Service’s monsoon forecast for the year ranged from “normal to below normal,” and that wildfire season could extend past mid-July if it was the latter.
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Hobbs thanked fire personnel throughout the state for their work and urged the public to exercise caution as they enjoy the outdoors over the next few months.
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“In Arizona, we know that wildfire season typically runs from April through early July,” Hobbs said. “It's an unfortunate reality this time of year, but the good news is that being aware of this can help us prepare and take precautions to ensure that we avoid worsening the situation.”
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Hobbs echoed warnings from fire officials that most wildfires are human-caused and to avoid certain activities that could spark a blaze.
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She urged people not to burn debris on windy days nor drive vehicles onto tall grass as the heat from the vehicle’s undercarriage can be enough to start a fire. She asked campers to fully extinguish their campfires, completely dousing it with water and dirt until it’s cool to the touch.
For subscribers:They survived the 'terrifying' Rodeo-Chediski Fire and, 20 years on, find a way out of grief
She also advised homeowners to make their abodes safer by removing dead or dying trees and moving flammable materials like firewood and propane tanks away from the property.
When asked whether firefighters receiving any pay increases that former Gov. Doug Ducey suggested as a possibility last year came to fruition, Truett said they did not and that staffing shortages remained an ongoing problem.
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However, Truett wouldn’t offer specifics as to whether he had asked Hobbs for additional resources.
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“We’re just asking for her support,” Truett said.
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Arizona's 2023 wildfire season looks much improved compared to past years
Arizona Republic
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Arizona's fire conditions during the state's wildfire season will be normal or, at some points, have below-average fire danger, according to the National Weather Service's Flagstaff office.
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According to the report, Arizona will only have above-average fire danger in the southeastern part of the state in April. Fire conditions will be normal in March, May and June, with parts of northern Arizona having below-average fire danger in the latter two months — especially near the Mogollon Rim.
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"Looking into our typical fire season, we are expecting below normal along the Mogollon Rim up toward the Kaibab Plateau and Coconino Plateau. For other areas in northern Arizona toward Navajo Nation, down toward the White Mountains and in the Yavapai County and northern Gila, conditions are about normal for May and for June," National Weather Service Flagstaff office meteorologist Jeremy Mazon told The Arizona Republic.
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The report also states "above average precipitation" improved drought conditions across the northern parts of Arizona, though the higher-than-average snowpack will likely melt at a normal rate throughout the month.
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"We are expecting that for April through June, the odds are in favor of warmer and drier than average conditions, but because we've had so much moisture in the past several months, and a lot of snowpack, that is going to help prevent the risk of significant wildland fire," Mazon said.
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Mazon also noted that a dry period can dry out lighter fuels, referred to as the "10-hour fuels," so the grasses that have soaked up significant amounts of moisture through the past several months will green and spring up quickly but run the risk of drying out rapidly if there comes a period of time with reduced precipitation.
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The forecast also says there's a slightly higher chance the state's monsoon, which runs from July to September, will be warmer than average. The chances of precipitation being higher, lower or near average were all equal.
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"There's equal chances for the monsoon season being above, near, or below average precipitation. There's not really any indication that we're going to have an extremely active monsoon season or extremely dry monsoon season," Mazon said.
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Included in the report is a drought monitor map, with the 2023 version showing much of the state having no drought conditions with the state's west, northwest and southwest edges showing abnormally dry to moderate drought conditions. The 2022 map, however, shows every part of the state having anywhere from abnormally dry conditions to extreme drought.
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Arizona House wildfire committee releases final report, offers no recommendations
KNAU News Talk - Arizona Public Radio | By KNAU STAFF
Published January 10, 2023 at 2:09 PM MST​
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The Telegraph Fire burned more than 180,000 acres near Superior in 2021 and is one of the state's largest wildfires in recorded history.
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A state legislative committee formed to evaluate state and federal wildfire policy has released its final report.
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The nearly 670-page document summarizes the work of the House Ad Hoc Committee on Forest and Wildfire Management and examines wildfire and post-fire flooding in Arizona.
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The committee didn’t adopt any concrete recommendations, but instead listed several recent laws passed by the Legislature relating to wildfires.
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They include reimbursements for livestock and private property owners as well as appropriations for wildfire prevention.
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The committee held five hearings throughout Arizona to discuss the impacts of wildfire on communities in Arizona.
It was formed in the wake of 2021’s 180,000-acre Telegraph Fire near Superior and other devastating recent blazes in the state.
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US to work with San Carlos Apache Tribe to cut wildfire risk in Arizona forests
Brandon Loomis
The federal government will pump $32 million into a partnership with the San Carlos Apache Tribe this year to thin forests and reduce wildfire risks in eastern Arizona over the next five years, the Biden administration announced on Thursday.
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The San Carlos program is among 11 Western landscapes chosen to receive funding from the Inflation Reduction Act this year. In all, the government announced new commitments of $490 million.
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The announcement follows on last year’s pledge of Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds to expedite forest health work in northern Arizona’s Four Forest Restoration Initiative and Salt River Project’s watershed protection program around Cragin Reservoir. That reservoir is a major water supplier for Payson, and also holds some water that flows to the Verde River and customers in metro Phoenix.
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Between the two spending bills, the administration has dedicated more than $3 billion to reducing the rising risk of catastrophic wildfires across eight states. Within Arizona since the turn of the 21st century, two megafires burned across more than a million acres. The fear of more such fires across the West as the climate warms and dries has made fuel reduction an urgent priority.
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“The crisis is now,” said U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, whose department includes the U.S. Forest Service.
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The San Carlos partnership will work across 3 million acres, including tribal and national forest lands in and around the San Carlos Reservation east of Phoenix. The tribe will use the funds to treat 100,000 acres on the reservation, mostly on its northwestern and eastern flanks. Those areas near the Mogollon Rim have grown dense with ponderosa pines.
The Forest Service will treat another 87,000 acres on neighboring tracts of the Tonto and Apache-Sitgreaves national forests, and south of the reservation in the mixed-conifer forests of the Pinaleño Mountains of the Coronado National Forest.
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The work is intended to protect communities, the environment, cultural resources and regional water supplies. Part of the project will minimize the risk of a fire that could rage up Mount Graham, threatening an international telescope observatory, telecommunications installations, and an endangered endemic red squirrel species.
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Other partners working to restore the forest lands include the Arizona Department of Game and Fish, the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management, and SRP. A portion of the zone reaches to the south side of Roosevelt Lake, in the watershed SRP uses to serve customers around Phoenix.
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A secondary goal is to help the San Carlos Apache Tribe staff up so it can work across more of the 3 million acre zone, according to materials the Forest Service published for the announcement.
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The tribe is building a lumber mill that will use thinned trees as a way to help its long-term management goals, Tribal Chairman Terry Rambler said. At a news conference that the Forest Service arranged near Saguaro Lake on Thursday, he thanked the Biden administration for the funds and said they will help preserve not just the reservation’s ecology but the tribe’s culture. Forest thinning will help preserve oaks that provide acorns, which the 17,000 residents consider a dietary staple.
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“We can’t be greedy in our time,” he said. “We’ve got to leave something for those that we love.” Forest Service Chief Randy Moore attended the event at a guest ranch below cliffs along the Salt River. The San Carlos program is among 134 high-priority fire zones the agency has identified, he said, and the legislation making billions of dollars available has for the first time made it possible to imagine treating them all over the next decade.
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“My entire career I’ve talked about, ‘What if?’” he said. “And that day has finally come.”
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In a phone interview, Mitch Landrieu, senior adviser to the president and coordinator of infrastructure projects, told The Arizona Republic that Inflation Reduction Act funds will keep flowing to projects like this unless Congress decides to pull that funding.
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“There’s no reason they should stop it,” he said, when so many communities have faced wildfire and other calamities for so long.
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“The president’s bringing receipts today,” Landrieu said.
Longtime participants in 4FRI, the state's largest forest restoration project in the pine forests above the Mogollon Rim, said last year's infusion of federal cash appears to have decisively moved work forward.
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For the Four Forest Restoration Initiative, last year’s $54 million commitment over five years helped reinvigorate a program that for years had languished far behind its goals in northern Arizona, according to Ethan Aumack, who as executive director of the Grand Canyon Trust has participated in that program’s planning for decades. The initiative is meant to counteract a century of fire suppression that left expanses with hundreds more pines than would have existed in natural conditions.
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The program has never come near its annual goal of 50,000 acres of mechanical thinning per year. Now, though, Aumack and others expect it will soon reach past recent benchmarks of more than 20,000 acres to as many as 35,000 a year, and perhaps to 50,000. That optimism reflects both an increase in a Bellemont mill’s capacity to use timber and new funds for such logistical needs as forest roads and timber sale preparations like tree marking. Those investments should help loggers exceed 50,000 acres a year in coming years, Aumack said.
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“I’m as confident as I’ve ever been that the pieces are in place for 4FRI to finally meet its original goal,” he said.
Brandon Loomis covers environmental and climate issues for The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. Reach him at brandon.loomis@arizonarepublic.com or follow him on Twitter @brandonloomis.
Environmental coverage on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust. Follow The Republic environmental reporting team at environment.azcentral.com and @azcenvironment on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.