BLM knocks down brush fire along Gila River near Pima

Jon Johnson File Photo/Gila Herald: Come January, it will be against the law in Pima to use a handheld cell phone or portable electronic device while driving.

Jon Johnson File Photo/Gila Herald

By Jon Johnson

jonjohnsonnews@gmail.com

PIMA – Fire crews from Pima, Thatcher, and the Bureau of Land Management made sure a wildfire along the Gila River near Pima got taken care of quickly. 

Initially, Pima and Thatcher firefighters were dispatched at about 4 p.m. on Sunday to the blaze located along the Gila River just east of the Pima Bridge. 

The reportedly human-caused fire consumed a total of about nine acres and sent up a few columns of smoke, according to a BLM firefighter. 

The fire was turned over to the BLM on Sunday night and it was declared out on Monday. The smoke from the brush fire did not contributed to the haze of smoke that inundated the Gila Valley on Monday and Tuesday morning. That smoke was from the Woodbury Fire, which has burned roughly 116,000 acres in the Superstition Mountains Wilderness.