Major fire burning in mountains near Sonora’s colonial Alamos

By Murphy Woodhouse
Published: Tuesday, April 19, 2022 - 10:41pm

Smoke rises from the Sierra de Alamos
Jennfier Mackay
Smoke rises from the Sierra de Alamos on April 17, 2022.

A major fire is burning in the mountains near Alamos, a colonial Sonoran town popular with U.S. expatriates.

As of Monday, federal officials reported the fire — burning in the towering sierra just south of the town — at well over 1,000 acres and 70% controlled.

Jennifer Mackay, a founder of a roughly 300-acre park known as La Colorada near the affected area, said she and other residents have been watching the incident with worry.

“The bigger picture not only of myself but the community at large is just the great concern for the whole mountain burning,” she said. “And how that's going to affect the ecosystem up there, the animals that live up there.”

She’s also worried about what the summer rains may do when they fall on the recently burned area. Mackay and her family have lived in Alamos — Scottsdale’s first sister city — for nearly three decades, and she could not recall a similarly significant blaze.

Fronteras Sonora