Arizona wildfire leaves a trail of destruction: Two hundred people are evacuated and 12 homes are destroyed
A small community in south-central Arizona remained under an evacuation notice Friday after crews and air tankers stopped the growth of a wildfire that burned at least 12 homes, officials said.
The fire burned through thick vegetation at the bottom of the Gila River in Dudleyville, a census-designated place with a population of about 1,000 located about 60 miles north of Tucson.
Officials said the fire continued on Thursday to an estimated 500 acres with containment around 20% of its perimeter as of Friday. The cause of the fire was under investigation.
The county Sheriff's Office said approximately 200 residents were evacuated and that the evacuation notice might be lifted Friday evening or Saturday morning.
Crews on Friday continued to build fire lines to keep the fire from spreading into Dudleyville if winds gust again but utility crews also needed to check for damage to power lines that were deenergized Thursday, said state Department of Forestry and Forest Management spokeswoman Tiffany Davila.
Homes near the intersection of Church Road and N. Dudleyville Road are seen as the wildfire burned near Dudleyville, Arizona on Thursday
Smoke is seen soaring into the air as a wildfire burned in south-central Arizona into the weekend while crews worked to contain it
A car is seen driving down a road near Dudleyville, Arizona while pillars of black smoke filled the sky as the wildfire raged
A dozer is seen creating containment lines in Arizona as a wildfire burned near the community of Dudleyville on Friday
Approximately 40 people spent the night at a shelter at a high school in a nearby community, Red Cross spokesman Mike Sagara said.
Officials told KNXV-TV that residents can seek shelter at Ray High School in Kearny, which is being set up as an emergency shelter location, as well as the Mammoth Community Center.
There was no immediate report of injuries. Approximately 100 people were assigned to fight the fire.
Arizona State Forestry officials said on Twitter that a dozer was being used to assist with the fire.
'Dozers are a valuable asset in wildland firefighting and are instrumental in creating defensive barriers that keep fires from spreading,' according to the San Bernardino County Fire Department. The bulldozers create containment lines during fires.
The hellish flames are seen consuming a tree as the Margo fire raged near Dudleyville in Arizona on Friday
A line of fire is seen burning through brush in the Arizona community of Dudleyville on Friday as workers try to contain it
A fire is seen burning branches and consuming wild plants near the Arizona community of Dudleyville on Friday
Water tankers are seen spraying down an area that suffered a massive wildfire in Arizona on Friday
The blaze rages in the background as it threatened to destroy more homes in the community of Dudleyville on Friday
A firefighter is seen spraying water onto a fire near the community of Dudleyville in Arizona on Friday
Aerial pictures show red fire retardant covering an area near the community of Dudleyville in Arizona on Friday
A video from KNXV shows a helicopter working to stop the quick-moving fire as homes are destroyed in Arizona on Friday
The National Weather Service in Tucson said that modeling shows that 'considerable' smoke from the fire, combined with smoke from a nearby fire near Bylas, will blow near Graham, Eastern Pinal and southern Greenlee County before settling into valleys at night.
The forecast for the next week shows that weather will remain dry and breezy as the region suffers 'extreme to exceptional drought,' according to the National Weather service. The agency noted that one-year statewide precipitation numbers rank the last year as the driest in 126 years.
Arizona had one of its worst wildfire seasons in nearly a decade in 2020 according to state Forestry and Fire Management Department officials.
Officials have warned there is a potential for widespread, statewide fire activity by June.
An Arizona State Fire vehicle covered in red fire retardant dropped out of planes fighting the Pinal County Wildfire near Dudleyville, Arizona
Fires are seen burning near a grouping of homes in the Dudleyville community of Arizona on Friday
Officials are seen gathered on a road in Arizona will crews work to battle the enormous fire on Friday that caused evacuations
A state fire vehicle is seen parked along a road in Arizona on Friday while flames burn in the background near Dudleyville
Pillars of smoke are seen soaring into the air above dry brush as Arizona suffers through a historic drought
Crews are seen working to combat the fire in Arizona on Friday as it burned near the community of Dudleyville
Among the factors for last year´s severe wildfire season was unseasonably warm conditions, a lack of moisture, an overabundance of fuels across Arizona´s central region and within the Sonoran Desert, and increased recreational traffic across the state.
A sweeping government study released Tuesday that concludes the situation is worsening as rainstorms grew more erratic and droughts much longer across most of the western United States over the past 50 years as climate change warmed the planet.
The most dramatic changes were recorded in the desert Southwest, where the average dry period between rainstorms grew from about 30 days in the 1970s to 45 days between storms now, said Joel Biederman, a research hydrologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Southwest Watershed Research Center in Tucson, Arizona.
The consequences of the intense dry periods that pummeled areas of the West in recent years were severe - more intense and dangerous wildfires, parched croplands and not enough vegetation to support livestock and wildlife.
The National Weather Service in Tucson said that modeling shows that 'considerable' smoke from the fire, combined with smoke from a nearby fire near Bylas, will blow into nearby counties
A police vehicle is parked near homes as a wildfire is seen burning in the background near the community of Dudleyville
Pinal County Sheriff's Office vehicles are seen parked along a road in Dudleyville as they work to close down roads from the fire
A Pinal County Sheriff's Office deputy is pictured with a dog as crews worked to contain the massive fire in Arizona
A fire engine is seen approaching the massive fire as crews worked to contain the blaze near Dudleyville in Arizona on Friday
The problem appears to be accelerating, with rainstorms becoming increasingly unpredictable, and more areas showing longer intervals between storms since the turn of the century compared to prior decades, the study concludes.
The study comes with almost two-thirds of the contiguous U.S. beset by abnormally dry conditions. Warm temperatures forecast for the next several months could make it the worst spring drought in almost a decade, affecting roughly 74 million people across the U.S., the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.
Water use cutbacks, damaged wheat crops, more fires and lower reservoirs in California and the Southwest are possible, weather service and agriculture officials have warned. Climate scientists are calling what´s happening in the West a continuation of a 'megadrought' that started in 1999.
The new findings were published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
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