May 6, 2026: Containment is up to 45%
The Hazen Fire near Buckeye grew to more than 1,100 acres Tuesday and is now 45% contained.
Most of the fire activity was within the containment lines built by fire crews. Fire managers say the growth was largely due to controlled burns that firefighters built on the eastern front to slow the spread.
A helicopter dropped almost 20,000 gallons of water on the blaze on Tuesday. Arizona Public Service has begun work to repair damaged power lines.
Crews say smoke may be visible in the Valley throughout the day.
The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality forecasts that fine particulate matter, which is blown into the air from the fire, peaks in the early morning and overnight hours. Officials have said that can cause breathing problems for people with respiratory issues.
May 6, 2026: Here is where the Hazen Fire is burning
The Hazen Fire is burning about a mile south of Buckeye residential areas and is bordering State Route 85. As of Tuesday afternoon it stood at 1049 acres and reached 10% containment overnight.
“So, they have containment line around there,” said Department of Forestry and Fire Management spokesperson Tiffany Davila, “however, they need to make sure there is no heat remaining near those containment lines before we can add any more containment, but everything is looking really good on the west northwest and north sides of the fire.”
Its southern perimeter is being held by the Gila River and its northern line is largely being held by the Arlington Canal.
“They're working in unsafe vegetation. They're working in a river bottom, which is already dangerous to begin with with all of that salt cedar in there. Salt Cedar is an invasive species. It burns very hot, it's flammable. It's an oily substance,” Davila said.
About a half a mile to the north of the fire is the Buckeye Equestrian and Event Center. On Sunday, the Center posted on social media that it was not evacuating.
But later Sunday evening, the Durango Equine Veterinary Clinic, which has client horses at the Equestrian center, said it was evacuating their horses from the facility out of smoke concerns.
The vet’s affiliated small animal center closed operations Tuesday and said all of their animals were evacuated as well. Neither have responded to a request for comment on if they have returned animals or resumed operations.
Wind from a low pressure system has been pushing the fire eastward, where much of the fire’s growth has been taking place. Part of the fire’s expansion is because crews used control burns along the Northeast flank to prevent the blaze from spreading. Much of the increased activity Tuesday afternoon was within the interior of the fire, which is not expected to pose a risk to containment lines.
“We have a lot of resources dedicated to the northeast flank. Again, that's the area they were working in last night to do those firing operations. That's the direction the fire is moving it to the northeast. Um, and so we have a lot of heat still remaining on that side of the fire. So that's where a lot of our resources are dedicated,” Davila said.
State maps show the fire is burning on a mixture of land owned by the City of Buckeye, state, private, Arizona Game and Fish Department.
No structures have been damaged so far, but power lines owned by Arizona Public Service were damaged.
A statement from the utility says: “There are no customers currently without power due to the Hazen Fire. APS crews conducted a helicopter survey of power lines today and have identified equipment damaged by the wildfire. We are working closely with the firefighters and will begin repairs once it is safe to do so.”
As of Tuesday morning, there were three different bulldozers and hand crews as well as a slew of aircraft working on containing the fire.
May 5, 2026: Wildfire is 10% contained
Fire crews have managed to contain 10% of the Hazen Fire near Buckeye, which grew slightly over Monday and into the night at just under 1,000 acres.
APS has located damaged power lines, but no outages have been reported.
Tiffany Davila with the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management says cooler temperatures helped crews Monday, as they were able to hold the line along State Route 85.
"We're trying to get as much work in as we can today because as we move into the next couple of days, temperatures are gonna warm up, we’re hearing possibly a 100 degrees," Davila said.
Crews have been doing controlled burns along the eastern flank to slow the fire’s spread.
May 4: 2026: Wind is pushing wildfire smoke over Valley
Michael Graves with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality says the wildfire and wind combined with low cloud cover and small rain chances are creating conditions for fine particulate matter to spread.
May 4, 2026: Wildfire grows to nearly 1,000 acres
The Hazen Fire southwest of Buckeye grew to almost 1,000 acres over the weekend and remained totally uncontained on Monday morning.
A temporary flight restriction was put in place, blocking all aircraft, including drones, from flying in the area.
The fire grew between a half a mile and a mile to the north and northeast over Sunday night.
State Route 85 is open in both directions, despite the fire burning nearby.
"We have drought conditions across the state and this area particularly, very thick with vegetation. It’s a lot of salt cedar, which is an invasive species to Arizona. It really just chokes out all the native vegetation," said Tiffany Davila with the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire management.
No evacuations have been ordered so far. The cause of the fire is still undetermined.
-
Arizona Public Service has nearly 40 active AI smoke-detection cameras and plans to have 71 by summer's end, and the state’s fire agency has deployed seven of its own. -
Smoke from the fire near Buckeye has blown into the rest of the Valley since it started burning Saturday. -
Kathleen Muldoon is a professor at an Arizona medical school who lives in north Peoria not too far from where the Hazen wildfire is burning. And she has Valley fever. -
The bill would grant the U.S. Forest Service the ability to enter emergency contracts to speed up recovery efforts. -
The ban is part of an annual effort to mitigate wildfire risk amid consistently below-average rainfall and dry conditions across Arizona.
