From alert to evacuation warning: How Wickenburg residents experienced the Jones Fire

What began as a fire alert on Rachel Crawford’s phone quickly turned into an evacuation warning.

The Wickenburg resident was home sick Monday when she learned a fire had broken out behind Jones Ford. Minutes later, as the Jones Fire spread, residents were told to prepare to leave.

“I was like, ‘Wow, that’s super close,'” Crawford told reporters at a Tuesday town meeting. “It was a little bit stressful there for a little bit, trying to get my pets ready, just in case I got evacuated.”

The meeting was held at the Wickenburg Community Center. Crawford joined other residents at the town meeting to learn more about efforts to address the Jones Fire, which displaced about 25 people and damaged or destroyed eight to 10 RVs.

“It was only minutes after I got the first notification that we got the notification that they were starting evacuations,” Crawford said.

She said one of her biggest concerns was how the notifications were handled.

“The fire had actually started around 11:30 in the morning,” Crawford explained. “I didn’t get a notification — I’m less than a mile from the fire source — until 2 p.m. So that’s 2 1/2 hours later. So I wanted to let them know that was a little concerning to me.”

After the Tuesday night meeting, town officials said resources for people affected by the Jones Fire continue to expand as community partners work together to support residents and families.

Wickenburg residents describe learning of Jones Fire in real time

The cause of the Jones Fire has not yet been determined. The 84-acre fire was 23% contained as of 9:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, according to InciWeb.

Initially, Crawford couldn’t see or smell any smoke.

“That’s the one thing that is interesting about the Wickenburg area versus Phoenix. I’ve lived in a couple of the different suburbs of the Phoenix area. In the Wickenburg area we’re slightly elevated, so we do have large hills, and it was totally blocking my view of the downtown area and exactly where the fire is,” she said.

Another Wickenburg resident, Geri Fair, said she lives right across from a wash that could have caught on fire very easily due to the grass and vegetation. She’s hoping the community will come together and help prevent future blazes like the Jones Fire from breaking out.

“I think a lot of people are concerned about some overgrowth,” Fair said. “We’ve been talking about it. We’re going to cut some trees down and clear it out. Just in case somebody did cause a fire over there in the wash.”

Weeks before, the city had just trimmed trees near her house, she added.

“It’s really sad about all those RVs in that spot because they couldn’t get them out,” Fair said. “In our park, most of them have their vehicles there and they could pull them out. There was a lot of people, they just had to go really fast.”

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Balin Overstolz McNair contributed to this report.

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