The Yarnell Hill Fire, the deadliest in the history of Arizona, continues to burn wildly and officials still have 0 percent containment on it. With the blaze showing no signs of slowing down, the federal government stepped Monday evening to take command over fighting the wildfire in a bid to begin making more significant progress.
Sparked on Friday, June 28, the wildfire has since expanded rapidly to encompass 8,400 acres as of Tuesday, according to InciWeb. Feeding the fire are dry fuels including chaparral and grass.
"These fuels are just incredibly dry," said Karen Takai, a spokesperson for the incident command team fighting the fire. "The situation is extremely volatile. When embers start flying, that is when we have a problem."
According to a report form NBC 2 News, winds have calmed considerably as of Tuesday, but thunderstorm cells are already visible in the sky. These thunderstorms bring little rain, but lots of lightning, creating a dangerous situation as lightning strikes on the dry vegetation in the area could fuel the fire further and ignite additional fires.
With 400 firefighters already working to battle the blaze, additional crews are on their way as the federal government has taken control of battling the Yarnell Hill Fire.
According to azcentral.com, the U.S. Forest Service took command of firefighting efforts in Yarnell as of 6:00 p.m. Monday. Once the fire is under the command of the federal agency's control, it shifts from a "Type 2 fire," commanded by the Arizona State Forestry Division, to a "Type 1 fire," which is considered the most serious type of fire. Clay Templin of the U.S. Forest Service is now the incident commander in charge of the blaze.
Type 1 teams have the most experience and training and tend to be larger with specialized experts. With this change in command, the U.S. Forest Service will now be in charge of making decisions about the use and deployment of resources.
As such, the Service, in partnership with the Defense Department, have plans to deploy four specially equipped C-130 firefighting aircrafts, CNN reports. The C-130 crews have been battling wildfires in Colorado, but with the severity of the Yarnell Hill Fire, have been redeployed to Arizona.
The C-130s, with the Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System, or MAFFs, can be loaded with water or fire retardant and can drop 3,000 gallons in less than five seconds. The retardant covers an area of one-quarter of a mile long and 60 feet wide. They can also return to base, reload again and be airborne in under 20 minutes.
- Contribute to this Story:
- Send us a tip
- Send us a photo or video
- Suggest a correction
