The latest blaze, which is being dubbed the “Tenderfoot Fire”, has forced hundreds of evacuations, according to CNN affiliate KPHO.
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Authorities say hundreds of people have fled their homes as a wildfire rages near the north-central Arizona town of Yarnell – the scene of a 2013 blaze that killed 19 members of an elite firefighting crew.
Around 200 firefighters and other personnel are assigned to the fire, which is 10 percent contained.
She says 3 out buildings have burned but no homes have been lost.
The raging inferno comes almost three years to the day from when a blaze engulfed the same area, ending in the deaths of 19 firefighters.
The brush fire comes almost three years since the Yarnell Hill Fire took the lives of the 19 Granite Mountain hotshots.
“They stopped, said there’s a fire and we go, ‘What fire?’ At that time it’s on top of the cell towers (on the mountaintops) and I’m grabbing animals and trying to think of what to grab and throw in the vehicle and they said, ‘You got five minutes, ‘” Starcher said from a gas station in Peeples Valley, 4 miles north of Yarnell.
Calm winds and cooler conditions with higher humidity overnight helped slow the fire, allowing firefighters to get some rest, Garcia said. The cause of the fire is also under investigation. Lightning sparked that blaze on June 28, 2013.
The fire covered 600 acres, moving quickly and threatening structures by 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Arizona Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Dolores Garcia said.
Bernard, who lived in Yarnell during the Yarnell Hill Fire said he helped people on the opposite side of the highway evacuate.
“We keep defensible space”, she said.
The Red Cross opened an evacuation center at Yavapai College at 1100 E. Sheldon Street for Yarnell evacuees.
There have been no reports of injuries or deaths so far.
Fire managers used existing fuel breaks, backfires, air tanker, two helicopters, 20 engines, four water tenders and 240 firefighters to protect the unincorporated settlement, sitting in the midst of a sea of brush and scrub growth – much of which hasn’t burned in 50 years.
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“It’s awful”, he said Wednesday evening in a telephone interview as he watched a helicopter drop water on the blaze and juggled a steady stream of calls to his cellphone.
