Cellar Fire south of Prescott burning more than 6,400 acres
Jul 17, 2019, 6:40 PM | Updated: Jul 18, 2019, 9:48 pm
(Twitter Photo/Prescott NF)
(Twitter Photo/Prescott NF)
PHOENIX — A wildfire burning 15 miles south of Prescott grew quickly on Wednesday and forced road closures.
The Cellar Fire was burning 6,450 acres with no containment as of Wednesday afternoon, according to an update from the Prescott National Forest.
At one point Wednesday morning, the fire was estimated at 7,000 acres.
The fire, which started Sunday at approximately 5 p.m. because of a lightning strike, grew 6,000 acres from the last update on Tuesday.
It has closed parts of Forest Road 52 and County Road 177 near the community of Pine Flat, the national forest said.
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The Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office issued a code red alert for Pine Flat last night but currently no evacuations are in effect.
Smoke from the fire will be visible from Prescott and surrounding communities over the next few days, according to the fire’s InciWeb report.
A Type 1 Incident Management Team is scheduled to take over fire relief efforts on Thursday, the national forest said.
#CellarFire pic.twitter.com/w0RotiXEim
— jennyem (@jennyem_09) July 17, 2019
There are currently seven airtankers, four helicopter, seven hot shot crews, two dozers, two Type 2 IA crews and 18 engines fighting the fire.
The Woodbury Fire, Arizona’s largest wildfire this year and fifth-largest in state history, became fully contained — but not controlled — on Monday.
It has burned 124,000 acres east of Phoenix since early June.
There have been 222,577 acres burned in Arizona so far this year, up from 89,650 burned last year.
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