Crews Gaining the Upper Hand on the Wallow Fire

The Wallow Fire has been making news recently as it grew out of control and forced the evacuation of thousands of Arizona residents. Thick smoke from the fire has created air quality problems across several states and has been reported as far north as Canada.

While the massive fire did grow in acreage overnight to become the largest fire ever in the state of Arizona, fire crews are finally starting to make some progress and slow the advance of the flames. As of Tuesday morning, azcentral.com was reporting the burn area had grown to 469,000 acres but containment was now up to 18% from just 5% a few days ago. Some growth in the size was actually attributed to firefighters setting back-burns to deprive the advancing blaze of fuels and management teams were generally optimistic that the danger to several residential areas had diminished significantly. In fact, some evacuation orders were expected to be lifted and many residents could start to return home as early as this afternoon. 

A break in the wind was credited for allowing fire crews to make progress over the past few days. The race is on now to bolster containment lines and hold key areas before the dry winds return. Forecasts were calling for another 48 hours of light winds before gusty conditions return on Thursday. Incident commanders are cautioning that while progress is being made and crews are optimistic that they may have turned the corner, the fire remains a threat. Local residents can get updated information including maps and evacuation updates through the Incident Information System.

Although the Wallow Fire has now surpassed the size of the 2002 Rodeo-Chediski Fire, so far it has done far less property damage consuming approximately three dozen homes and buildings compared to nearly 500 destroyed in 2002. Experts are now starting to shift some attention towards the next emerging threat which is expected to be flooding. Within the next three to four weeks, a seasonal wind shift will begin to import copious amounts of moisture leading to the potential for heavy rains in areas recently charred by the fire. The plant life that normally helps to absorb runoff will be absent for quite some time. This is expected to heighten the risk of flash floods and mudslides in the burn area.

Residents are being warned that time is running out to purchase flood insurance in time for the arrival of the summer monsoon. Since most new policies take 30 days to go into effect, officials were urging those in and around the burn area to take action immediately.