The Sawmill Fire spread to more than 40,000 acres Wednesday afternoon due to winds and fuel.
“We have roughly 360 people on the fire at the moment. That’s a changing number,” said Dan Bastion, fire spokesman.
He said several communities in the area are under pre-evacuation. Closures are still in place on the Arizona Scenic Trail and Highway 83 north of Sonoita.
U.S. Forest Service Fire information officer Tiffany Davila said conditions are ripe for the fire to spread.
“We do expect the fire to grow in size, just due to the active winds," Davila said. "We’ve had windy conditions here for the past few days, we expect that to continue over the next few days as well."
As of Thursday night, the fire was 20 percent contained.
