Tucson Region

Turkey Flat cabins focus of Graham firefighting efforts

SAFFORD - The Nuttall and Gibson fires continued to burn overnight, outlining the ridges beneath Southern Arizona's highest peaks in flame, obscuring the peaks in smoke and creeping up canyons toward a cluster of summer cabins at Turkey Flat. Those cabins will be the main focus of firefighting today, incident commander Dan Oltrogge said at briefing on the fire Wednesday morning. "Today, the weather is not giving us much of a break," Oltrogge said. Some high clouds signaled a slight increase in humidity, but not enough to slow the fires being fought as the single Nuttall Complex. Fire is "seated" in the canyons just beneath the cabin area and made a couple runs overnight at the line carved along Swift Trail (Arizona 366). Overnight aerial mapping of the fire showed it had grown to 22,143 acres, less than the 25,000 to 30,000 Oltrogge had estimated Tuesday night. The Gibson portion of the fire accounted for much of the growth. It stood at 13,426 and the Nuttall at 8,717 acres. The fire is still only 10 percent contained and is expected to grow considerably again today. The cluster of observatories on Emerald Peak is not threatened today, Oltrogge said. "I feel pretty confident about the observatories." Last night, firefighters set a backburn that will help protect the observatories on the east and north sides, where the advancing Gibson Fire was as close as half a mile. "From the west, we are still vulnerable," Oltrogge said. The Nuttall Fire to the west was still at least two miles away. Read more in tomorrow's Arizona Daily Star.