Woodbury Fire was a

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a ...

in the Superstition Wilderness, northwest of

Superior, Arizona Superior (Western Apache language, Western Apache: Yooʼ Łigai) is a town in northern Pinal County, Arizona, United States, and is the oldest town in the county. According to the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the tow ...

, that started on June 8, 2019. The fire burned a total area of 123,875 acres. It was the fifth largest wildfire in

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

’s history. The blaze caused the evacuation of homes, road and campground closures, endangered

wildlife habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

s, and the destruction of hiking trails and archaeological sites.

Origin

The fire erupted five miles in the Superstition Mountains east of

Mesa A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge, or hill, bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and standing distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks, such as shales, capped by a ...

, near the Woodbury Trailhead, north of Superior, Arizona, in the

Tonto National Forest The Tonto National Forest, encompassing , is the largest of the six national forests in Arizona and is the ninth largest national forest in the United States. The forest has diverse scenery, with elevations ranging from 1,400 feet (427 m) in ...

. The origin of the fire was human-based.

Description

The fire was reported around 1:28 PM on June 8. On June 18, the fire was only 6% contained, and 40,557 acres were burnt. By June 21, the fire had burnt 54, 998 acres, while the containment had dropped from 42% to 34%. As of Tuesday night, June 26, the fire had scorched 121,899 acres, and

firefighter A firefighter (or fire fighter or fireman) is a first responder trained in specific emergency response such as firefighting, primarily to control and extinguish fires and respond to emergencies such as hazardous material incidents, medical in ...

s had contained 48% of the fire. Due to the size and complexity of the fire, both government agencies and private contractors were deployed to gain control of the fire. By mid-June, there were 450 firefighters to fight the flames. On Monday, July 15, by 7:00 PM, the fire was fully contained.

Use of UAS

On June 26, 2019, an

unmanned aircraft system An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Drone ...

(UAS) was deployed by Justin Baxter, a drone fire operations specialist, and his three-man team. They flew a Matrice 600 (M600) for gathering data on the magnitude of damage and locating hot spots using an

infrared sensor Infrared thermography (IRT), thermal video or thermal imaging, is a process where a thermal camera captures and creates an image of an object by using infrared radiation emitted from the object in a process, which are examples of infrared imag ...

Consequences

The fire destroyed the habitat of the white-tailed and

mule deer The mule deer (''Odocoileus hemionus'') is a deer indigenous to western North America; it is named for its ears, which are large like those of the mule. Two subspecies of mule deer are grouped into the black-tailed deer. Unlike the related whit ...

javelinas Peccaries (also javelinas or skunk pigs) are pig-like ungulates of the family Tayassuidae (New World pigs). They are found throughout Central and South America, Trinidad in the Caribbean, and in the southwestern area of North America. Peccarie ...

bighorn sheep The bighorn sheep (''Ovis canadensis'') is a species of Ovis, sheep native to North America. It is named for its large Horn (anatomy), horns. A pair of horns may weigh up to ; the sheep typically weigh up to . Recent genetic testing indicates th ...

, black bears,

coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans''), also known as the American jackal, prairie wolf, or brush wolf, is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the Wolf, gray wolf, and slightly smaller than the c ...

bobcat The bobcat (''Lynx rufus''), also known as the wildcat, bay lynx, or red lynx, is one of the four extant species within the medium-sized wild cat genus '' Lynx''. Native to North America, it ranges from southern Canada through most of the c ...

s and

gray fox The gray fox (''Urocyon cinereoargenteus''), or grey fox, is an omnivorous mammal of the family Canidae, widespread throughout North America and Central America. This species and its only congener (biology), congener, the diminutive island fox ...

es. It also burnt 989 acres of land within Tonto National Monument.

Closures

The areas burned by the fire presented the risk of severe flooding due to which a 7-mile, unpaved section of State Route 88 (Apache Trail), starting past

Tortilla Flat ''Tortilla Flat'' (1935) is an early John Steinbeck novel set in Monterey, California. The novel was the author's first clear critical and commercial success. The book portrays a group of 'paisanos'—literally, countrymen—a small band of e ...

to State Highway 188 at

Theodore Roosevelt Dam Theodore Roosevelt Dam is a dam on the Salt River located northeast of Phoenix, Arizona. The dam is high and forms Theodore Roosevelt Lake as it impounds the Salt River. Built between 1905 and 1911, the dam was renovated and expanded in 1989� ...

, was closed. Apache Lake and Marina, Apache Campgrounds, and picnic sites were also sealed. A portion of the

Arizona Trail The Arizona National Scenic Trail (AZT) is a National Scenic Trail from Mexico to Utah that traverses the whole north–south length of the U.S. state of Arizona. The trail begins at the Coronado National Memorial near the US–Mexico border an ...

(AZT) and Hewitt Station (Forest Road 357) was also closed for public safety. The Forest Service closed sites included Crabtree Wash, Davis Wash, Burnt Corral, Three-Mile Wash, and Fish Creek.

References

{{Arizona wildfires Wildfires in Arizona 2019 Arizona wildfires 2019 in Arizona