It may be the middle of December, but the Bureau of Land Management in Arizona is thinking ahead to summer fire season.  The agency is taking a closer look at its relationship with Arizona utility providers.

The BLM manages more than 12 million acres of land in Arizona, that includes many sites where APS, SRP and other utilities have transmission lines. Under a new policy, the agency plans to ramp up enforcement to make sure those utilities are keeping vegetation thinned near their equipment. The policy also allows utilities to take on fire mitigation or suppression efforts immediately, without waiting for BLM authorization. 

“If the power line does happen to fail or fall, creating that spark, having reduced vegetation around that power line can potentially reduce the risk to adjacent communities," said Dolores Garcia, public information officer with the BLM Arizona State Office.

California’s Camp Fire — the state's most deadly wildfire ever, in 2018 — was caused by electrical lines.

Lightning and other natural causes can spark some wildfires, but of more than 100 fires that burned nearly 5,000 acres of BLM land this year in Arizona, the majority were human-caused.