Arizona Fire Grows to 4800 Acres Overnight

Northern Arizona’s Slide Fire grew to 4,800 acres overnight, and 200 people have been evacuated from Oak Creek Canyon, with another 3,000 on standby.

Fire crews have made progress on the fire, building a line between the blaze and Flagstaff subdivisions. But Flagstaff Fire Captain Bill Morse said the containment is still elusive.

“There was some great fuels treatment by the Coconino National Forest that gave us a place to put our back against it. They fired out a mile and a half and two miles of that road. They tied that burning operations down into ’89 to the top of the switchbacks. So for the short term, that northeast corner where that fire was pushing all day yesterday was kind of in check. That does not mean that we’re out of the woods by any way shape or form. It means we have a place to now start anchoring and tie all of the pieces of the puzzle together,” explains Tony Sciacca, Incident Commander.

Thousands of residents in Coconino County have been given pre-evacuation notices.

The U.S. Forest Service says the fire was likely caused by a person, but no exact cause has been given.

Agencies/Canadajournal