Crews Make Progress On Arizona Wildfires

Published: Monday, July 10, 2017 - 5:06pm
Updated: Tuesday, July 11, 2017 - 9:19am

Fires burning near Black Canyon City and Tucson have consumed almost 64,000 acres combined.

Sunday storms helped keep the Burro Fire in check northeast of Tucson. The blaze is now 51 percent contained and has consumed about 27,000 acres since June 30.

“The monsoonal season is continuing," said Ryan Traina, spokesman for the Southwest Area Incident Management Team 1. "And that is doing great benefit to our firefighters and to our mountain, and to the area that is burning.”

Increased humidity has helped crews fight parts of three fires burning north of Black Canyon City. Brush and grass have fueled the lightning-caused Brooklyn, Bull and Cedar fires. They’ve burned roughly 38,000 acres since July 7 and are zero percent contained.

“We can expect some containment numbers to move up significantly (Monday),” said Dolores Garcia, spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. “The humidity that we have received in the last two days has moderated the fire behavior. So, we’re not really seeing too much activity.”

The fires are not threatening any structures. And there are currently no closures on the Interstate 17 because of the fires. However, Bloody Basin Road and Table Mesa Road along I-17 are closed.

KJZZ's Katherine Fritcke contributed to this story.