Arizona has wildfires year-round though they peak in the summer and usually start to lessen with the monsoon.
Tiffany Davila with the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management says so far the state has seen fewer fires than last year, though there’s starting to be an uptick.
"We didn’t have the moisture, we’re not really seeing the moisture that we had heard we were going to receive as far as the monsoon goes, so that’s why we're seeing this late season activity," Davila said.
Several fires are burning around the state, with one, the Washington Fire, getting an unusual number of personnel.
It's in the Tonto National Forest, along with the Billy Fire. Both have evacuation orders still underway. The Billy Fire is more than a third contained and is much larger than the neighboring Washington Fire at 6% containment.
But the 550 acre Washington Fire has more personnel working on it. The ratio is nearly one person per acre, which Celeste Prescott with the fire’s management team says is uncommon but used in times of resource shortage and terrain difficulty.
“So basically they just didn’t want another large, I mean 550 is still large, but they didn’t want another multiple thousands of acres fire out here on the landscape. So we are putting in a lot of energy into trying to keep this one small," Prescott said.
She says at this time of year resources start to be needed out of state, and this fire’s growth outlook and infrastructure risks led to the intense response.
Other fires are getting more under control like the Woods Fire in the Coconino National Forest, and the Bronco and Indian Creek fires east of Phoenix — they each have more than two thirds containment.
