Wildfire

Updated: Florida Fire grows, forcing Madera Canyon evacuations

GREEN VALLEY – Continued growth of the 9,260-acre Florida Fire forced the evacuation of Madera Canyon this morning and prompted federal officials to order a more sophisticated fire management team. “The fire has become more active to the south and that presents the possibility that it could burn down into the canyon,” Bill Watt, a fire information officer, said. There are about a dozen homes in the canyon, three lodges and a number of sheds and other unoccupied buildings. All residents had left the canyon by noon today and there was no need to open an evacuation center, said Louis Chaboya, director of emergency management for Santa Cruz County. County officials are advising residents to remain indoors and shut their doors and windows to avoid respiratory problems. A blanket of smoke was covering Green Valley this morning, making it tough to even see the Santa Rita Mountains. Three air quality monitors will be set up around Green Valley, Tubac and Patagonia by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, Chaboya said. Some national media outlets reportedly said homes around Green Valley were threatened, but that’s definitely not the case, said Chuck Wunder, operations chief for the Green Valley Fire District. “There’s absolutely no danger of this fire entering into Green Valley,” he said at a midday press conference here. But because the fire has crested the high point of the Santa Rita Mountains, 9,453-foot Mount Wrightson, firefighters are now assessing the threats to ranches located four to six miles south of the flames. The fire is in the upper reaches of several canyons that drain to the southern base of the range. “There is no plan for evacuations in those canyons,” Watt said. “It was basically a courtesy call.” The increasing complexity of the fire has prompted Coronado National Forest Supervisor Jeanine Derby to transfer management of the fire to a higher-level team. Since the blaze's start July 7, the suppression effort has been overseen by a type II team led by Larry Raley. At 6 a.m. Thursday, the task will be handed over to Dan Oltrogge's type I team. Oltrogge's team has fought many of the high-profile fires in Arizona in recent years: this summer's Cave Creek Complex, northeast of Phoenix; the 2004 Nuttall Complex on Mount Graham; the 2003 Aspen Fire in the Santa Catalinas and the 2002 Rodeo-Chediski Fire in the White Mountains. There are 732 personnel assigned to the fire, including 11 "hotshot" crews and six other 20-person crews. Twenty fire engines, 16 water tenders, six helicopters and two bulldozers are also part of the suppression effort. In Madera Canyon, sprinklers have been set up around all 30 structures and will be turned on if the fire gets near enough. At the closest point, flames are about 1 mile northeast of the buildings. Crews have already constructed a thin fuel break one-quarter to one-half mile east of the cabins and lodges. Raley, the outgoing incident commander, said he has confidence in firefighters ability to defend the canyon’s structures. As the fire backs down into the canyon, he said, crews will use the containment line as a starting point for intentional fires that will travel uphill to meet the main blaze and rob it of fuel. “I believe it is a secure line and that we will be able to perform burnout operations along that line to prevent the fire from crossing and entering the residences,” he said. But strong winds from the north last night have pushed the fire even farther south past a planned containment line near the top of Mount Wrightson. That’s raised the possibility that the fire will hook around and approach Madera Canyon from the southeast, Raley said. Fire managers were still trying to figure out a new location for building a containment line on the fire’s southern front. Crews may be able to start attacking the fire directly because flames will be tamer, Raley said. “As this fire comes south it gets into some very sparse fuels and areas that have been heavily grazed. Both will reduce the fire activity,” Raley said. Firefighters have already burned out from a containment line on the fire’s northeastern edge. That’s led officials to declare the blaze is 15 percent contained. Meteorologists assigned to the fire are forecasting a chance of wetting rain on the mountain Wednesday afternoon. But thunderstorms could also make conditions worse by stoking the flames with wind or starting new blazes with lightning strikes. “The major event we’re hoping not to see,” Raley said, “is an actual cloud build-up above the fire that collapses and causes a downdraft that blows the fire into a larger area.”