Daniel GonzalezArizona Republic
Brad Widhalm sat in his U.S. Forest Service pickup on a ridge overlooking a vast swath of desert scrublands off State Route 87 when in the distance a tall plume of gray smoke began to rise rapidly to the north.
It was midafternoon Monday, and down below, firefighters were mopping up the Adams Fire, discovered Sunday evening. The Adams Fire grew quickly, charring more than 5,000 acres, and briefly threatened a desert community of expensive homes in the Goldfield Ranch area before being subdued.
Now Widhalm was keeping his eye on a new blaze, the Catahoula Fire, about a mile north of the Four Peaks Road.
"We've got another fire growing over there," Widhalm said, climbing out of the pickup to take photos to post on the Tonto National Forest's social media pages.
The northbound lanes of SR 87 were closed for about three hours Monday while firefighters battled the Catahoula Fire using air tankers among other equipment.
It was the third day in a row a wildfire had been discovered in the Mesa district of the Tonto National Forest between Phoenix and Payson, starting with the Spring Fire on Saturday that burned more than 4,000 acres.
On Tuesday, June 4, a fourth brush fire, the Mud Fire, was discovered in the median off SR 87 near mile marker 208 also roughly in the same vicinity. That fire burned about a tenth of an acre before being extinguished.
On Wednesday, June 5, a fifth brush fire in as many days, the Cottonwood Fire, was discovered off SR 87 near SR 188 north of the Spring Fire, said Denise Croker, a spokeswoman for the Tonto National Forest. The Cottonwood Fire had burned 6 acres before it was stopped, Croker said.
In addition, the 87 Fire, which started on Memorial Day near SR 87 and the Bush Highway, burned scores of acres.
The Wildcat Fire, which started May 15 further west in the Cave Creek district of the Tonto National Forest, burned over 14,000 acres. That fire is now 100% contained.
Fire officials have concluded that due to the lack of lightning, the recent rash of wildfires in the Mesa district of the Tonto National Forest was likely caused by humans. The exact cause of the fires remains under investigation, but some may have been caused by target shooters, said Chris Loxterman, fire management officer for the Mesa district of the Tonto National Forest.
The recent rash of human-caused, fast-moving wildfires in the Tonto National Forest has alarmed fire officials. In 2020, the Bush Fire, a human-caused fire in the Mesa district of the Tonto National Forest, charred nearly 200,000 acres, and fire officials don't want to see a repeat, Loxterman said.
The fires this summer are being fueled by two types of invasive grasses, Red Brome and Stinknet. A thick layer of grass blanketed desert areas from two wet winters in a row, and the dry hot weather has turned those grasses into dangerous fuel, Loxterman said.
Starting in May and June, the fire season in Arizona is always dangerous until summer monsoons kick in or until high temperatures begin to cool in the fall. But the carpet of dry grass covering desert areas of the Tonto National Forest has led to extreme fire danger this year, Loxterman said.
"With that availability, given the current fire conditions and the continuity of the grass load, fires are able to carry on at a higher rate than maybe we've seen in the past," Loxterman said.
At over 2.9 million acres, the Tonto National Forest is the largest national forest in Arizona and the ninth largest in the nation. The areas on either side of SR 87 are especially popular recreation areas used for camping, target shooting and off-road vehicles, officials said.
Fire conditions are expected to worsen later this week when a heatwave is forecast to arrive, sending temperatures soaring near 110 degrees.
As a result, fire officials are pleading with the public to obey fire restrictions put in place on May 23 prohibiting target shooting, campfires and charcoal grill fires within the Mesa district of the Tonto National Forest. Those restrictions will be expanded to the entire Tonto National Forest on Thursday.
Fire officials also are asking motorists to make sure chains are not dragging, which can cause sparks that can ignite wildfires, and not to park vehicles in grassy areas where hot engines can also start fires, Loxterman said.
As of Tuesday, June 4, 561 wildfires in Arizona have burned more than 43,056 acres of state, tribal and federal land, said Tiffany Davila, a spokeswoman for the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management.
That is more than four times higher than the 10,466 acres burned from 522 fires through the same period in 2023, Davila said.
The high number of wildfires and acres burned, including within the Tonto National Forest, this summer in Arizona was predicted due to the dry grass covering the desert from wet winters, Davila said.
"The outlook for this year was the potential for high fire activity south of the Mogollon Rim across the Tonto (National Forest) down into southern Arizona," Davila said. "We're experiencing that right now."
With hot dry conditions forecast to increase in the coming days, "that fire activity is going to increase significantly," Davila said.
Most jurisdictions in Arizona will be placed under Stage One fire restrictions beginning on Thursday. The restrictions prohibit campfires, charcoal grills, target shooting, and smoking except within vehicles, buildings or developed recreational sites.
For more information on fire restrictions, Davila suggested the public visit wildlandfire.az.gov.
