Firefighters north of Prescott were able to respond quickly to a wildfire burning northeast of State Route 89 toward Chino Valley Tuesday afternoon. Dwight D’Evelyn of the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office says they got a big assist from some cattle.

“We have cattle that graze out here and will eat a lot of the grasses and leave patches of barren land or dirt and that can actually slow fire and act as a firebreak,” D’Evelyn said.

He says the fire burned about 500 acres from north of the Prescott Airport, to about a mile and a half east of the town of Chino Valley. Crews had to battle wind gusts of up to 40 miles an hour to contain a blaze of unknown origin.