Brad Widhalm was sitting in his U.S. Forest Service truck on a hill overlooking a vast swath of desert scrub off State Route 87 when, in the distance, a tall plume of gray smoke began to rise rapidly toward the north.
It was mid-afternoon Monday and below, firefighters were mopping up the Adams Fire, discovered Sunday night. The Adams Fire grew rapidly, charring more than 5,000 acres and briefly threatening a desert community of expensive homes in the Goldfield Ranch area before being brought under control.
Now Widhalm was watching for 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 truck to take photos and post them on the Tonto National Forest social media pages.
The northbound lanes of SR 87 were closed for about three hours Monday as firefighters battled the Catahoula Fire using tanker trucks, 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 the Spring Fire on Saturday that burned more than 4,000 acres.
On Tuesday, June 4, a fourth wildfire, the Mud Fire, was discovered in the median of SR 87 near mile marker 208, also in approximately the same vicinity. That fire burned about a tenth of an acre before being extinguished.
Additionally, Fire 87, 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, burned more than 14,000 acres. That fire is now 100% contained.
Firefighters concluded that due to a lack of lightning, the four recent fires in the Mesa district of the Tonto National Forest were caused by humans. The exact cause of the fires remains under investigation, but some of them may have been caused by shooters, said Chris Loxterman, fire management officer for the Mesa district of the Tonto National Forest.
The recent series of rapidly evolving man-made wildfires in the Tonto National Forest has alarmed firefighters. 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 a repeat, Loxterman said.
This summer’s fires are being fueled by two types of invasive grasses, Red Brome and Stinknet. A thick layer of grass covered desert areas for two wet winters in a row, and the hot, dry climate has turned those grasses into dangerous fuel, Loxterman said.
Starting in May and June, fire season in Arizona is always dangerous until the summer monsoons set in or until high temperatures begin to drop in the fall. But the carpet of dry grass covering the desert areas of the Tonto National Forest has created extreme fire danger this year, Loxterman said.
“With that availability, given current fire conditions and the continued grass load, fires may continue at a greater rate than perhaps we’ve seen in the past,” Loxterman said.
At more than 2.9 million acres, Tonto National Forest is the largest national forest in Arizona and the ninth largest in the country. The areas on both sides of SR 87 are especially popular recreation areas used for camping, target shooting and ATVs, officials said.
Fire conditions are expected to worsen later this week, when a heat wave is forecast to bring temperatures near 110 degrees.
As a result, firefighters are pleading with the public to obey fire restrictions implemented May 23 that prohibit target shooting, campfires and charcoal grills within the Mesa District of the Tonto National Forest. Those restrictions will expand to the entire Tonto National Forest on Thursday.
Firefighters are also asking motorists to make sure chains don’t drag, which can cause sparks that can start wildfires, and not to park vehicles in grassy areas where hot engines can also start 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 greater than the 10,466 acres burned in 522 fires during the same period in 2023, Davila said.
The large number of wildfires and acres burned, including within the Tonto National Forest, this summer in Arizona was predicted because of dry grass covering the desert due to wet winters, Davila said.
“The outlook for this year was the possibility of high fire activity south of the Mogollon Rim through the Tonto (National Forest) into southern Arizona,” Davila said. “We’re experiencing that right now.”
With hot, dry conditions forecast to increase in the coming days, “fire activity will increase significantly,” Davila said.
Most jurisdictions in Arizona will be under Stage One fire restrictions starting Thursday. The restrictions prohibit campfires, charcoal grills, target shooting and smoking, except inside vehicles, buildings or developed recreational sites.
For more information on fire restrictions, Davila suggested the public visit wildlandfire.az.gov.
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