Black Rock Gulch- Arizona-s Largest Wildfire Continues Unchecked

Phoenix, ARIZONA The Black Rock Gulch Fire located in the NW corner of Arizona, in the Arizona Strip District of the BLM, has now burned over 20,000 acres. The fire is burning in ponderosa and pinion pine, juniper, sage, and dead chaparral. The July 5th lightning fire quickly became an immediate threat to Black Rock Mountain Lookout, several administrative cabins, communications facilities, and nearby ranch-cabins and structures. One outbuilding was destroyed. The lookout and administrative site were evacuated during the early stages of the fire. The lookout and other buildings remain threatened as well as the communications site housing multiple repeaters critical to numerous law enforcement agencies as well as to fire and emergency operations. A type 2 Incident Management Team (Lund) is assigned. There is no estimate of containment. There are 266 personnel assigned to the fire, along with eight engines, one helicopter, and an air tanker. Two Type 1 (Interagency Hotshot) Crews are enroute. Given the extreme fire behavior due to the inaccessible terrain, drought-influenced fuels, and weather, the fire is expected to grow significantly in the next 72 hours. The firefighting effort has been hampered by inaccessible terrain, extreme fire behavior in dry fuels, and erratic winds. Rapid rates of spread with crowning and spot fires have been common since the fire was first reported. Over the past two days, fire lines were compromised due to the strong erratic winds and firefighters shifted to building indirect fire line using the new line as an anchor to successfully complete some burnout operations last evening.