Arizona wildfire grows to 150,000 acres, 5th-largest in state history, as more blazes rage in West

At the same time as the fire is burning, forcing more than 2,000 people to evacuate, Arizona is seeing a sharp uptick in coronavirus cases, which complicates shelter and evacuation decisions. As of Friday morning, the Bush Fire northeast of Phoenix was only 7 percent contained, with additional evacuations ordered since Thursday.

Western states are entering an active wildfire season just as coronavirus cases spike

The Bush Fire has rapidly grown in the Tonto National Forest since a vehicle fire started it June 14. It’s not only the largest ongoing wildfire nationwide at this point but has rapidly climbed up the state’s historic wildfire list amid hot, dry weather with erratic, gusty winds.

Each of the top seven largest fires in Arizona have occurred since 2000, in keeping with a trend toward larger blazes in parts of the West, which studies have linked in large part to climate change.

Gila and Maricopa county emergency management officials have ordered evacuations in the communities of Apache Lake, Sunflower, Punkin Center and Tonto Basin.

“Danger in these areas is imminent and life threatening,” wrote personnel with the U.S. Forest Service. “Residents should evacuate immediately. … If you choose to ignore this … you must understand emergency services may not be able to assist you.”

State Route 88 was closed from Apache Lake to State Route 188. The town of Jakes Corner, home to about 1,900 people, was told to be ready to evacuate.

Several recreation areas, including Sugarloaf, Four Peaks and Lower Sycamore, were shut down due to the fire.

Video emerged on social media appearing to show Four Peaks, a landmark visible from Phoenix about 40 miles east of the city, glowing — several spot fires peppering the slopes. The peaks, part of the Mazatzal range, rise to 7,600 feet.

Weather continues to favor rapid fire spread

Extreme fire behavior will probably continue in coming days, with increasing temperatures compensating for any slackening of the winds to make firefighting conditions extremely challenging. Temperatures in the Tonto Basin, which will remain in the mid-90s on Thursday and Friday, could spike to the century mark Sunday and into the 103-to-108-degree range next week — further drying vegetation and enabling fire spread.

The heat will also make firefighting challenging for crews, who have to carry heavy loads of equipment into high terrain.

Smoke pouring into the air from the Bush Fire and other blazes was causing hazy skies all the way into the Dakotas, as well as Utah and Colorado.

Another serious fire, known as the Bighorn Fire, continues to ravage the landscape northeast of Tucson. Sparked by lightning, the fire covering 37,057 acres was 40 percent contained as of Friday morning. The fire had swallowed much of the southwestern Santa Catalina Mountains, with tendrils of flame slipping down Finger Rock and Pima canyons. Favorable weather conditions on Thursday helped limit fire spread.

“We can see it,” David Mueller, assistant golf pro at the La Paloma Country Club in the Catalina foothills, said in an interview Thursday.

“We had the smoke [visible] from the course and the parking lot. It’s still in the mountains, but over the weekend it got a little closer.”

He said business has boomed since coronavirus restrictions limited the feasibility of other recreational activities, but he noted that people are closely watching the fire.

Fortunately, the club and populated areas in the northern Tucson suburbs are safe for the time being.

The Pinal County Sheriff’s Department and the Pinal County Office of Emergency did place at least one community — Oracle — under “set” status, advising people there to “be ready.”

Oracle is on the northern fringe of Catalina State Park, off State Highway 77. As of Thursday morning, it appeared as though the fire had not crossed the Pima County line into Pinal County.

Tuesday “evening’s burnout operations that created a buffer around the Mt. Lemmon Sky Center have proven successful,” wrote a Southwest Area Incident Management Team. Mount Lemmon, Mount Bigelow and areas north of Organizational Ridge Road were evacuated, while lower Mount Lemmon remains on guard.

Some of the work done in combating the Bighorn Fire builds on groundwork laid during the 2003 Aspen Fire, which torched 84,000 acres and burned hundreds of homes in the town of Summerhaven. Fire crews were able to use fire lines created in 2003.

No structures have been lost there so far, with crews thus far able to prevent the fire from entering town. The community was evacuated this week as the towering flames loomed.

For some residents on Mount Lemmon, Tuesday’s evacuation order marked the fourth fire they’ve been forced to flee since 2000.

Farther north, the Mangum Fire was only 3 percent contained Thursday morning and has already consumed about 57,000 acres of national forest atop the Kaibab Plateau in northern Arizona. The North Rim of the Grand Canyon was inaccessible due to road closures, including the shutdown of Highway 67 out of Jacob Lake.

California’s fire concerns

While parts of the Southwest could see some slight improvement in fire weather Thursday into Friday as weaker mid-level winds translate to more-tepid surface gusts, the dry conditions will still yield elevated fire weather concerns.

California has also been seeing an uptick in wildfire activity, as well as weather featuring strong winds and low relative humidity levels, which are conducive for such blazes. Early spring snow melt has left vegetation dry and vulnerable to ignition.

A few pockets of elevated fire weather are possible Thursday in the Sacramento Valley, according to the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center.

Fire season will continue to be in full swing in the desert Southwest until the region’s monsoon kicks into gear by mid-July. Until then, any thunderstorms that form could actually do more harm than good, by bringing dry lightning strikes. This occurs when hot, dry air near Earth’s surface evaporates any rain before it’s able to reach the surface. That allows lightning to spark new fires without any counteractive deluges to douse the flames.

The same parameters that favor dry thunderstorms also encourage gusty winds to mix down to the surface, which can cause even greater headaches when it comes to fire weather concerns.

An influx of moisture should temper fire season in Arizona within the next four to six weeks — but in California, a state not subject to the monsoon, the real trouble is just beginning. Forecasts call for an anomalously hot summer across the Golden State, which, combined with below-average rainfall, spells trouble. Fires caused nearly 150 fatalities in California in 2017 and 2018 combined.

There is an increasing likelihood that a potent dome of high pressure — accompanied by long-duration hot and bone-dry weather — will become established over the West Coast late this month. That would accelerate the drying of fuels and ripen the risk of dangerous fire growth later in the season.

Fires coincide with covid-19 spike

This year’s wildfire season is unlike any other, due to the spread of the novel coronavirus. Arizona has been seeing a surge in cases, including in Maricopa and Gila counties, where evacuations have been ordered for the Bush Fire.

Arizona has announced 2,519 new cases, for a total of 43,443. It is definitely a record (again). Covid-19 hospitalizations are now at 1,667, doubling since Memorial Day. The charts on Arizona’s dashboard show inpatient beds across the state at 85 percent capacity, and ICU beds at 84 percent. Also on Memorial Day, Arizona was averaging 342 cases a week, compared to 1,740 as of Friday.

Arizona reported 2,519 new cases Thursday, which was another record high, according to a Washington Post analysis. Since June 1, the seven-day rolling average of cases has increased from 342 to 1,740.

On Wednesday, the mayor of Tucson issued an order to mandate the wearing of masks in public, aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus, although that could also benefit people sensitive to wildfire smoke.