Monsoon, winds prevented another bad fire season

PHOENIX — Arizona seems to have escaped a devastating wildfire season while the rest of the west burned.

There were dire predictions heading into summer of a second consecutive devastating wildfire season in Arizona. Last year one million acres burned and the state recorded its largest wildfire when the Wallow Fire charred almost 550,000 acres and forced the evacuation of thousands of people in eastern Arizona.

Less than 200,000 acres burned this year in Arizona, mainly due to the early monsoon and less wind.

“We had quite a few ignitions, but our initial attack resources were able to contain the fires at a reasonable acreage,” said fire management officer Kelly Castillo with the Bureau of Land Management.

“Last year, we had continuous red flag days and we were fighting fires all the way through July. This year, the monsoon set in early and gave us a little reprieve on fire season. This year we were dry in Arizona but the winds never materialized like last year.”

Castillo said many Arizona firefighters are out of state battling other fires.

“It is going to be a long season and it could be October or November until California winds down,” he said. “Our firefighters in Arizona have been fighting fires since April, when we had fires in southeast Arizona.

“We try to rotate crews after 14 days and bring them back to keep them refreshed. If they come back for a few days or a week, we make sure they’re rested before we send them out to the next fire.

And even though many of the state’s firefighters are in California, Idaho, Montana and Utah, Castillo said Arizona have plenty of manpower and equipment to deal with wildfires.

“We keep engines and equipment in reserve in the event of smaller initial attack fires that we need to put out,” said Castillo.