Steve Quayle News Alerts

Wildfires blazing across Arizona could force "rolling blackouts" in Phoenix and other parts of Central Arizona, Gov. Janet Napolitano warned Wednesday.

The several fires threatened transmission lines, forced a half-day evacuation of 85 homes east of Payson and closed the Beeline Highway between Phoenix and Payson.

Near Safford, firefighters burned out a buffer around the observatories atop the Pinaleno Mountains and held the line on flames advancing toward summer cabins at Willow Flat again Wednesday - on what they hoped would be the last day of hot, dry weather.

"Today may have been our last really tough day as far as weather is concerned," said Dan Oltrogge, incident commander for the twin fires called the Nuttall Complex burning through the mountains identified by their highest peak, Mount Graham.

But temperatures above 100 could be a major problem today in Phoenix. Two high-voltage transmission lines that bring power into the Phoenix area are in fire areas in Northern and Central Arizona. And Phoenix's Valley of the Sun is still suffering from an unrelated weekend fire that destroyed transformers at a major switching substation.

"We are very close to the situation where the power available in the Valley will not meet the power demand," Napolitano said at a Phoenix news conference. "They're running right up against the margin."

Central Arizona homes and businesses may lose power for up to 30 minutes at a time between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., when utilities face their highest summer demand. Phoenix expects highs from 101 to 106 today.

Power will be maintained for essential services.

Napolitano urged people to curb usage during those peak hours, avoid use of large appliances and turn up their thermostats to at least 82 degrees.

On Wednesday:

A new fire, the 90-acre Ponderosa, forced evacuation of the two Thompson Draw subdivisions east of Payson, along with a summer camp. The fire was fully contained last night and residents were allowed back.
Officials were concerned about the fire's proximity to Tonto Village and an APS utility line, although the fire appeared to be moving away from the electric transmission system. Another APS line did burn, causing loss of power and telephone use from Highway 260 through several communities, including Young.
Officials closed a 45-mile stretch of Arizona 87, the Beeline Highway, between Phoenix and Payson so fire crews could conduct burnout operations between the road and the 94,300-acre Willow fire near Payson. The Department of Public Safety expects to reopen the highway early today.
The lightning-caused Willow Fire, which started June 24, was considered 22 percent contained, and firefighters successfully defended the communities of Payson, Pine and Strawberry against the growing fire.

Firefighters successfully used an intentionally set fire to defend a large power line about 10 miles southeast of Flagstaff. The 14,600-acre Jacket fire was sparked by lightning June 22. The fire from the burnout caused smoke that could affect visibility on Interstate 40.

On Mount Graham, the Nuttall Complex fire was 25 percent contained after burning through nearly 27,000 acres.

Oltrogge delivered his nightly report to a community meeting in Safford, where some audience members questioned the tactics used in fighting the Nuttall fire but applauded and cheered the 1,000 firefighters and support staff trying to snuff the two-week-long blaze.

"We're doing pretty well, we're holding our own, but we're still in a fight," said Oltrogge. Weather could help, he said, with his meteorologists forecasting increased humidity today and possible wetting rains by the weekend.

One of the questions fielded by Oltrogge came from Graham County Supervisor Drew John, who asked why heavy air tankers weren't deployed.

Oltrogge said he uses the tankers when he can get them, but actually prefers the four heavy helicopters fighting the fire because they can drop a load of water or retardant and return a few minutes later with another one. The fixed-wing tankers have to fly back to air bases in the Phoenix area or Albuquerque to refuel, he said.
The tankers' priority is initial attack. Five of them were deployed yesterday to stop the Ponderosa fire near Payson.

John said he was satisfied with Oltrogge's answer but had heard the question over and over from his constituents.

The biggest weapon in Oltrogge's arsenal is the Sky Crane helitanker, which can drop 2,400 gallons of retardant and refuel in one minute.

Captain Chuck McInnes of Helicopter Transport Services spent Wednesday morning making repeated drops of retardant on the canyons beneath Turkey Flat, along with three other heavy helicopters and four medium-sized ones.

"It's a hot fire," he said. "It made some pretty good runs. But I'm pretty confident we can get that more or less under control."

With the observatories now buffered by black, saving the cabins at Turkey Flat became the No. 1 priority for firefighters who are cutting a line and setting fires that will burn to the north along the spine of the Pinalenos, using Swift Trail (Arizona 366) as a starting point.

Many of those attending the meeting were owners of summer cabins in Turkey Flat, where 74 families have cabins on Forest Service land, many of them in the family for decades.

There are no fancy cabins on Turkey Flat, said Vaughan Grant, a Safford insurance agent who owns one and insures several others. Not all of them are insured, he said. "I've turned down as many cabins as I've written," Grant said.

"Of the 70, I'd bet 50 are 30-plus years old," he said.

"Most," he said, "have that old rugged, all-wood, real cabin look" and all are strictly summer homes.

Sheri Brown of Tucson, a teacher at Tanque Verde Elementary School, said the cabin she owns with her sister is old but recently rebuilt. The families work each Memorial Day weekend to clean up pine needles and thin vegetation, but she is worried that it wouldn't survive a fire.

She said her son, who proposed to his wife at the cabin four years ago, is even more concerned: "He called me six or seven times yesterday."

Brown said her Tucson friends told her how lucky she was these past two summers as Mount Lemmon burned and Mount Graham was spared. But she knew it was coming. Dried and dying trees told her that.

"We needed this fire," she said. But she is rooting for it to spare Turkey Flat.

Capitol Media Services and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact Tom Beal at 573- 4158 or tombeal@azstarnet.com.

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