Arizona has been experiencing quite a bit of fire activity in recent weeks, straining already thin resources.
The Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management is having to move crews around to make sure staffing is covered.
The San Carlos Apache Tribe declared a state of emergency on Friday and requested disaster assistance as the Watch Fire burned homes and more than a thousand acres of land in eastern Arizona. And it’s not the only active blaze in the state.
The Hillside Fire scorched more than 800 acres near Congress, and the Freeman Fire has spread through more than 28,000 acres of wilderness north of Oracle, Arizona.
Tiffany Davila is a spokesperson for the Department of Forestry and Fire Management. She said crews are all over the place.
“We’ve got resources being reassigned from the Hillside Fire up in Congress to help support this fire here outside of Oracle,” Davila said. “We’ve got some of our crews that went to San Carlos to help with the needs over there.”
They’re hoping for storms with rain, and not just winds and dry lightning that will provide some moisture to help put out the fires.
“Our crews are stretched thin, it’s very hot outside,” Davila said. “We’ve had multiple heat related incidents with our personnel and they’re doing the best they can under the conditions that they're working in.”
