‘At the whim of the weather’: High winds, rugged terrain among challenges in fighting Crooks Fire

A slurry bomber prepares to enter the thick smoke of the Crooks Fire burning north of Palace Station Tuesday evening. (Tom Rutherford/Courtesy)

A slurry bomber prepares to enter the thick smoke of the Crooks Fire burning north of Palace Station Tuesday evening. (Tom Rutherford/Courtesy)

The brutal winds, the unusually early occurrence in the fire season, and the rugged terrain all continue to be factors in the efforts to fight the Crooks Fire burning south of Prescott.

Those were among the points that a team from the California Interagency Incident Management Team made to about 80 people who turned out for a community meeting Wednesday, April 20, at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University campus.

For about an hour Wednesday evening, officials from the Incident Management Team, the Prescott National Forest, and Yavapai County answered questions and outlined the challenges that the Crooks Fire poses.

Incident Commander Rocky Opliger said about 70 members of the California Interagency Interagency Incident Management Team arrived in Prescott Tuesday after the Crooks Fire was declared a Type 1 incident.

The team has set up operations at Prescott’s Watson Lake, which has required the lake to be closed to the public. Other nearby lakes Goldwater and Lynx are also closed because of the fire.

Opliger told the crowd that the Crooks Fire consisted of about 1,600 acres Wednesday evening and was expected to be at about 2,000 acres of Thursday morning.

He and others on the team emphasized that winds with velocities of up to 60 miles per hour had fueled the fire on Tuesday. And even though the winds had died down a bit on Wednesday, Opliger said the high winds were expected to return on Thursday and Friday, causing a possible largescale growth in the fire.

“We do know we have the winds coming in tomorrow and Friday,” Opliger said.

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Yavapai County Sheriff David Rhodes, left, explains the evacuation process that is being used in the Crooks Fire south of Prescott to the audience during a community meeting at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Wednesday, April 20, 2022, while Tara Furcini of the Arizona Emergency Response Interpreters, right, provides a Sign Language interpretation. (Cindy Barks/Courier)

Early on in the fire, the volatile conditions caused the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office to tell residents in the Walker, Potato Patch, and Breezy Pines areas to gather their belongings and evacuate immediately.

Some of the evacuees were in the audience Wednesday night and had a number of questions for officials. One man from the Walker area asked why the Walker evacuations had occurred so early in the wildfire.

Yavapai County Sheriff David Rhodes responded that the fire had appeared to be topping Mount Union. “If it comes over the top, nobody’s going to be in that canyon (to fight the fire),” Rhodes said, adding that evacuating the residents was “the safest thing to do.”

Another resident asked for a timeline for the when residents might be allowed to go back to their homes.

Opliger responded, “We’re, right now, at the whims of the weather.” With the winds expected to return Thursday and Friday, he said it would be unsafe for residents to return, but added, “As soon as we possibly can, we want to get you back in your homes.”

Opliger and Prescott National Forest District Ranger Sarah Clawson both stressed that the Crooks Fire had started earlier than is typical in the fire season.

“This is very early to have this kind of fire behavior,” Opliger said.

Clawson added that because of the early occurrence of the fire, “We don’t have all of the fire-fighting resources that we would have if this was three or four weeks from now.”

Still, in response to a question from the audience about whether funding was available to fight the fire, she said, “We have the resources we need from a funding standpoint.”

Throughout the past two days, the Crooks Fire has had a number of aviation resources working the incident, including two air-attack platforms, a lead plane, a large air tanker, and Type 1, 2, and 3 helicopters. In addition, a Very Large Airtanker (DC-10) dropped two loads of retardant on the fire on Wednesday, and the helicopters provided water to the fire using Hassayampa Lake and Goldwater Lake, according to information form the Forest Service.

Although technical difficulties prevented the Forest Service from airing Wednesday’s meeting on Facebook Live, the meeting was recorded and will be aired later. More information is available at https://www.facebook.com/PrescottNF.

Follow Cindy Barks on Twitter @Cindy_Barks. Reach her at 928-445-3333, ext. 2034, or cbarks@prescottaz.com.


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