Wildcat Fire Nears 14,000 Acres in Northeast Valley, Fire Officials Mobilize Additional Resources
Fire officials called in additional resources Monday morning to combat a rapidly expanding wildfire in the northeast Valley that had nearly tripled in size over the previous 24 hours.
The Wildcat Fire, burning in the Cave Creek Ranger District north of Dynamite Boulevard and 136th Street near Vista Verde, was first reported on Saturday morning before 9:30 a.m. The cause remains unknown.
Since then, the fire has consumed over 14,000 acres. As of Monday morning, it was 0% contained. About 300 personnel are battling the blaze, with officials requesting more federal, state, county, and local resources, including aviation assets and medical teams, according to Tonto National Forest spokesperson Mike Reichling. “It’s a bit of everything,” Reichling said.
Efforts to control the fire have been hindered by hot, dry, and windy conditions, according to InciWeb. These conditions were expected to persist on Monday, with the National Weather Service forecasting a “breezy” day with southwest afternoon winds of 15 to 20 mph, gusting up to 40 mph. Fire officials expected the wildfire to continue moving southeast through rugged terrain dominated by grass and brush. They hope personnel can find opportunities to construct firelines and develop strategies to protect infrastructure and natural resources.
“We’re kind of leveling out right now, seeing what this is going to do, especially with this wind event today,” Reichling said. “We’ll see what happens with that. There’s a lot more that could be ordered, but we’re not going to order them yet because we’ve got a lot coming in.” He added, “We’ve got all the assets we need; we just hope the weather cooperates. That’s the one thing we can’t control.”
Reichling noted that no “major communities” were currently under threat from the fire. Firefighters were successfully preventing the fire from reaching the communities of Cave Creek, Carefree, and north Scottsdale. “There are a couple of ranches in the area, but they’ve done some clearing around them,” he said. “No large, populated communities are impacted at this point.”
However, power lines belonging to the Salt River Project (SRP) were threatened. SRP officials said Monday afternoon that they were “monitoring” the fire and had not experienced any outages due to the flames.
“In the event of an unplanned outage, SRP will visually inspect its overhead lines before restoring power to ensure it is safe,” said spokesperson Jennifer Schuricht. “This additional inspection means customers may experience a longer outage. SRP has resources available and is prepared to support restoration efforts if needed.”
Authorities urged the public to sign up for the Maricopa County Emergency Notification System for prompt alerts about emergency evacuations.
Officials also cautioned the public to avoid traveling through the wildfire area or flying drones near it to prevent interference with aircraft fighting the blaze.
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