Bush Fire explodes to become 7th-largest in Arizona history

PHOENIX – The Bush Fire raging northeast of the Phoenix area continues to eat up land in the Tonto National Forest with little containment, officials said.

On Wednesday night, the fire had consumed 104,379 acres and remained at 5% containment, according to InciWeb.

Wednesday morning, the blaze became the seventh-largest in Arizona wildfire history at more than 89,059 acres, based on KTAR News 92.3 FM research.

Despite the growth and evacuations, no structures have been lost yet. Containment was at 5%, fire incident management team spokesman David Albo told KTAR News.

More than 1,500 residents were evacuated from Tonto Basin, Punkin Center, Sunflower and the Apache Lake area.

The Bush Fire passed 2003’s Aspen Fire near Tucson, which burned through 84,750 acres.

The human-caused Bush blaze, which began Saturday, has been tearing through tall grasses and brush.

More than 500 personnel have been assigned to attack the fire.

Wednesday afternoon, Southwest Area Type 1 Incident Management Team led by Alan Sinclair had been assigned to combat the blaze.

Sinclair and his team had recently worked to help contain the Sawtooth Fire in the Superstition Mountains.

“The extreme heat and the wind we’ve been seeing these last few days are definitely some of the biggest challenges when it comes to what our firefighters are having to deal with,” Albo said.

State Route 87 remained shut down between the Bush Highway and Payson.

Tuesday afternoon, the Arizona Department of Transportation announced the fire’s growth had forced the closure of State Route 88 near Apache Lake.

In addition, State Route 188 is closed from highways 87 to 88 near Roosevelt Lake.

7:33 a.m., Tuesday, BUSH FIRE closures:
* SR 87 is still closed from Payson (MP 251) to Bush Highway (MP 199).
* SR 188 is closed between SR 87 (MP 244) and SR 88 (MP 276).
* Best detour: SR 260 and I-17. #aztraffic #azfire #BushFireTontoNF pic.twitter.com/XXVZlp5bXK

— Arizona DOT (@ArizonaDOT) June 16, 2020

Nearby recreation areas have also been closed.

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Jim Cross and Taylor Kinnerup contributed to this report.

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