Fire officials are scheduled to hold a news briefing late Friday morning on the blaze that broke out close to Yarnell, a community where a 2013 wildfire killed 19 members of an elite firefighting crew.
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Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Dolores Garcia says 250 to 300 people left their homes in Yarnell about 60 miles northwest of Phoenix.
In 2013, 19 firefighters were killed battling a wildfire on Yarnell Hill, which located on town’s east side.
The brush fire threatened structures Wednesday in the north-central Arizona town of Yarnell – the scene of a 2013 wildfire in which 19 members of.
How the fire started isn’t known but Williams said a human cause is suspected.
Fire officials say residents on the west side of Yarnell are being allowed to return home Friday night.
“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. Fire officials on Thursday put the fire near Yarnell at roughly two square miles, up from the one square mile estimated late Wednesday.
Fire spokesman Gerry Perry says firefighters will determine Friday afternoon whether to reopen part of State Route 89 near Yarnell.
Officials said 300 residences have been evacuated in connection to the Tenderfoot Fire.
Forecasts predict the weather will stay mostly the same as Thursday, which had light winds of 5-10 miles per hour, but with a slight increase in humidity.
Calm winds and cooler conditions with higher humidity overnight helped slow the fire, allowing firefighters to get some rest, Garcia said.
There are no injuries reported.
A Red Cross shelter for evacuees was set up at Yavapai College in Prescott. The fire has burned close to Yarnell but so far the only structures reported to have burned are three unoccupied buildings such as sheds.
The fire began Wednesday afternoon and has burned more than 600 acres and three structures, though no homes have been lost.
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Authorities later revealed the cause of the fire was thought to be a lightning strike.
