Firefighters face tough conditions in Wickenburg fire

Added: 2026-05-13

[00:00:00]Yeah. So, the crew that we spoke with actually was on the ground yesterday fighting this fire. Now, they're administering aid to those who are kind of attacking it right now. But they say the biggest diff difficulty, like you mentioned, has been what is burning and where it's burning. Now, we're currently just off of Highway 60 right here, and you can see in the last 10 minutes, crews are now on scene back administering water. They just shut off that water probably about 10 seconds ago, but they're looking at this uh black soot area where we've heard from Forest Department that the reason they're doing this is to make sure no hot spots reignite and that fire stays put out. But you can actually see this way some more of that damage just from the highway. This is right here. Take a look at this. This is that black soot that currently cakes this area. Not sure if you can see it, but just on the top of it, maybe if we zoom in, you can see somebody that's walking. It looks like a first responder or a firefighter.

[00:00:49]Tiffany Dilla says that there are many of these crews out all across the area.

[00:00:53]Now, yesterday we did see a lot of uh maybe mitigation trying to make sure that none of this did catch fire. That's what this pink stuff is on top of these mountain areas. You can see it kind of paint and blanket the area. This is fire retardant to make sure that uh these this vegetation does not go up in flames extremely quick. Now, this is some video from again from earlier today. It shows from from the air from our Arizona family chopper. You can see a large portion of this burned area. Now, Davilla with the Arizona Department of Fire Management says they have 125 people assigned to this fire, including four hand crews, water tenders, and a dozer working in the river bottom. Now, the river bottom, like Vanessa said, is what is making this the most difficult.

[00:01:36]Dilla says that that dozer is used as a tool to basically contain that fire and make a line. Now, the river bottom is thick and full of vegetation. This creates dry fuel for that fire to grow and spread. She says right now they are not flying any aircraft, but that does not mean they don't have the availability and they could launch air support if they needed it. Now, some good news we should share is that while we are at 0% containment, the fire remained within its blueprint overnight, meaning it did not grow and it did not move. She adds they did have resources on night shift patrolling and monitoring picking up those hot areas like we just saw a few seconds ago. But overall this fire is difficult to fight. But these are a little bit more challenging because of the conditions because of the heavy thick fuel in the area. Um again salt cedar is an invasive species so it really overcrowds and chokes out the native vegetation and the the conditions that they're working in very smoky very hot. The tamarisk is very flammable. You know, like you said, it's going to be hot and dry today and throughout the rest of the week. And that's what we're going to be facing here in the next couple of months.

[00:02:48]>> Yes. So, aside from fire departments, this has been an all hands-on deck situation, and no one, like Vanessa said, really knows a stranger because this community is so tight-knit and all put together. Now, there is a Facebook page that I did post in asking if there are people in this community that have gone above and beyond offered support and help to anybody impacted. I have over a hundred comments on this post, which just shows uh how much of an impact this town makes on each other and what they mean uh when you're in a small town like this and everybody really uh just lends what they can. One more time, this is that fire that they're currently looking at making sure this hot spot is taken care of. These crews on scene again blocking off portions of Highway 60 for safety, but we are still seeing these crews work uh to get everything under control. Again, 0% containment, but the work continues tonight in Wikcinberg. For now, live in Wikcinberg tonight, Austin Walker for Arizona's Family. I sub.