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Official: Humans caused 5-square-mile Arizona wildfire

 

 

PEEPLES VALLEY, Ariz. — Residents of Yarnell, Ariz., learned Thursday that a fire, which erupted the day before across a major highway from the fatal 2013 Yarnell Hill wildfire, didn't come from a lightning strike but instead came from human activity.

Exactly who started the Tenderfoot Fire, which has been burning between slopes southeast of Yarnell since about 3:15 p.m. MST Wednesday, and whether it was arson or unintentional is not yet known, said Dolores Garcia, a federal Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman. Fire officials have set up their command center in Peeples Valley, Ariz., about 5 miles from the fire's origin. 

Aerial infrared photo mapping overnight showed the blaze at a little more than 5 square miles and 10% contained.

So far, the fire is posing no eminent threat to homes or structures and has not crossed any containment lines, Garcia said late Thursday.

Wildfires tend to calm down as evening approaches but often grow in the heat of the day when vegetation is at its driest and windy conditions propel flames. The fire is about 80 miles northwest of Phoenix and less than a mile southeast of Yarnell, a community of about 700 residents best known for a lightning-caused wildfire in which 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots firefighting team were killed June 30, 2013.

About 300 people who had been evacuated from the potential path of the fire were hoping to return home Thursday if only to retrieve necessities but ultimately were not allowed back in the area, Garcia said.

"The last thing we want to do is have residents go back into unsafe situations," she said.

Friday's forecast calls for a high of 92 degrees with no chance of rain and winds from the southwest at 10 mph, weather often duplicated in the summer in the high desert.

On its first day, the fire burned three structures — all out buildings — and appeared to move northeast, burning upslope just east and away from Yarnell, on the east side of Arizona 89. A photo showed flames moving up Y Mountain, just beyond a monument honoring the firefighters who died in 2013. By nightfall, the fire had reached the top of the ridge, destroying cellphone towers there, said Dwight D'Evelyn, a Yavapai County Sheriff's Office spokesman.

Conditions in central Arizona are extremely dry with a high fire danger, Garcia said.

The last measurable rainfall in the area was in Prescott, Ariz., about 30 miles to the northeast, which had 0.04 inches May 17 and traces of rain May 18. The highest temperature was 69 degrees both days. Since then, the area has seen warmer temperatures and high winds in the afternoon, drying up plants, said meteorologist Hector Vasquez of the National Weather Service.

“The vegetation has gotten dryer,” Vasquez said. “That’s why it’s fire season. Everything is bone dry. Any moisture that fell in the spring is gone by now until the July monsoon season.”

Follow Ricardo Cano and Ron Dungan on Twitter: @Ricardo_Cano1 and @exploreaz

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