Jon Johnson Photo/Gila Herald: A wildfire burns along the Gila River on the evening of May 13. No structures were in danger.
No structures are threatened at this time
By Jon Johnson
THATCHER/PIMA – A wildfire burning along the Gila River riverbed between Thatcher and Pima has burned roughly 635 acres and forced the closure of Reay Lane between Norton Road and Safford/Bryce Road.
The wildfire was first reported Monday afternoon. The Bureau of Land Management is the primary on the fire and will have an investigator on-site on Tuesday. With no lightning reported in the area, the fire was likely human-caused.
Wind gusts and a riverbed full of fuel pushed the fire to the east forcing the closure of Reay Lane on Monday night. The road was still closed Tuesday to take care of some of the heat on the interior, according to BLM PIO Dolores Garcia.
“They don’t anticipate any issues to containment,” Garcia said. “They said they’re looking really good this morning. They were able to get around the fire completely last night, and they were able to conduct some burnout operations that helped them tie into some areas that have less vegetation so they could use those as containment lines.”
While containment was listed at only 20 percent as of Tuesday morning, that number is expected to increase exponentially throughout the day. However, with inside pockets of vegetation burning with dense vegetation, those pockets will continue to burn and pop up throughout the day, according to Garcia. The BLM believes the fire should be fully contained in a few days.
As it burns, there are no structures within a quarter-mile of the fire.
In addition to two engines from the BLM, two engines from the Forest Service are on the fire, as well as the Aravaipa Hot Shots, and the Fort Grant Type-2 Crew with the Department of Forestry and Fire Management.
Crews will continue to strengthen containment lines Tuesday and monitor the activity, primarily on the interior.
The BLM encourages fire awareness when recreating, especially this time of year.
“Many of the fires we see this time of year are human-caused and preventable,” Garcia said. “People need to use caution as they work and recreate outdoors to make sure that the activities they’re doing aren’t generating a spark or could potentially cause a wildfire.”
