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Fires sizzle across state as Florida Fire slows

The sputtering start to the 2005 monsoon is proving to be both a blessing and a curse for wildland firefighters in Arizona. Once the summer rainy season gets going in earnest, wildfires will be a rarity because fuels will be too wet to burn. But three straight days of storms packing as much wind and lightning as rain have kept crews scrambling to control scores of new fires across the state. Aided by the influx of moisture, firefighters reported good progress in controlling the 22,500-acre Florida Fire in the Santa Rita Mountains, the largest of at least 110 wildfires burning in Arizona by Monday night. The Florida Fire has grown little in the past few days and officials consider it 50 percent contained, meaning half its perimeter is secure. Crews have begun leaving the incident to attack new fires in the region. Firefighters on Monday successfully conducted a 500-acre prescribed burn in the Madera Canyon area, fire spokesman Bob Summerfield said. The burnout slowly backed the fire down a hill on the east side of the canyon, consuming grass and brush close to the ground while keeping the fire from gathering intensity and climbing into the treetops. Fire managers say there's now less of a threat to the 30 or so structures in Madera Canyon and $100 million worth of telescopes and other equipment atop Mount Hopkins. But until fire containment lines are completed in the south end of the Josephine Canyon area and Jack Mountain, evacuations won't be lifted, Summerfield said. The Florida Fire, named for the peak on which it began, was ignited July 7 by lightning. The suppression effort has thus far cost $6.5 million. Sunday's thunderstorms started 64 new wildfires in Arizona and New Mexico, a day after lightning sparked 95 blazes in the region, the Southwest Coordination Center in Albuquer-que reported. It's still unclear how many fires were started - or put out - by Monday's storms. "Most of these fires are happening on top of mountains and deep in canyons that have no roads to them," said George Taylor, a spokesman for the Arizona Interagency Information Center in Phoenix. "These things, for the most part, are so remote that they're just burning acreage." The J-Canyon Fire, 13 miles northeast of Wickenburg, had already burned about 2,000 acres and the 85 firefighters assigned to control it were struggling to find places to build containment lines, Taylor said. Fire crews were battling several small fires around Mount Graham, 75 miles northeast of Tucson, but they were expecting thunderstorms in the area Monday evening would put them out. The Barfoot Fire, just west of the Barfoot lookout, burned about 4 acres, said Marylee Peterson, a Coronado National Forest spokeswoman. The crew trying to contain that fire got some help from a single-engine air tanker that made three drops of retardant. The crew was forced to leave the area when a fast-moving thunderstorm came through the area. It was hoped that the moisture would subdue the fire, Peterson said. Two other fires in the area, the Cedar Fire and the Two Troughs Fire, burned less than a dozen acres Monday, Peterson said. Crews working those fires were also evacuated because of the incoming storm, which was expected to bring rain. Firefighters fought at least three fires Monday in the Tonto National Forest, all of which started over the weekend by lightning. Crews succeeded in eliminating a threat to structures from the 200- to 400-acre Salome Fire about 10 miles north of Roosevelt Lake, Tonto spokeswoman Tammy Pike said. "They were able to save the Greenback Ranch," along with a historic cabin that had been wrapped in fire-retardant material, Pike said. A firefighting team from New Mexico was brought in to take over the battle against the 5,000-acre Edge Complex, about 10 miles east of Roosevelt Lake. In all, about 40 lightning-sparked fires were reported on the Tonto during the weekend, Tonto spokeswoman Emily Garber said. In central Arizona's Prescott National Forest, crews and air tankers attacked two lightning-sparked fires that merged Sunday and nearly doubled in size to 3,500 acres. The Butte Complex fire was burning northward, toward the Cedar Bench Wilderness. It began as the Butte Fire, located 13 miles southwest of Camp Verde, and the Arnold fire, 10 miles south-southwest of Camp Verde. The blaze burned grasses and juniper woodlands but wasn't threatening structures, said Debbie Maneely, a Prescott National Forest spokeswoman. Lightning also triggered five other fires in a five-hour span Sunday on the Prescott National Forest, ranging from a quarter-acre to 80 acres in size. All were estimated at 50 percent contained and none threatened any structures, Maneely said.