Williams

With steady precipitation in the immediate forecast over the next several days, fire crews will take advantage of favorable weather conditions and will burn machine piles around the Shiner Timber Sale area approximately 5 miles south of Williams.

These piles consist of left over slash from logging operations and are spread out over an area of about 1000 acres. The Shiner project is located just southwest of Dogtown Lake along the east side of county road 73. Fire Managers are hopeful that conditions will be remain suitable to remove these fuels over the next few days.

Kaibab National Forest fire officials are alerting the public that recent prescribed fire activities may be visible at several locations across the Williams and Tusayan Ranger Districts over the next several days and could possibly linger into the approaching Christmas holiday.

Fuels reduction efforts will be continuing on both the Williams and Tusayan Ranger Districts beginning Friday (11/9/2018) of this week. Both districts will be conducting broadcast burns that could extend over the next several days as environmental and weather conditions permit.

The 12,000 acre Sunflower Prescribed Fire Project located approximately 8 miles southeast of Williams has been ongoing over the past year with nearly 7000 acres successfully treated to date. Aerial ignitions will continue as crews work toward completing the remaining 5000 acres on this project.

A new lightning caused wildfire that was discovered on August 25 on the Williams Ranger District will be allowed to move naturally to benefit the landscape. The 5 acre Perkins Fire is located approximately 2 miles southwest of White Horse Lake and is burning slowly in grass, ponderosa pine and oak litter near the junction of forest roads 109 and 110.

Due to significant and widespread precipitation south of the Grand Canyon, the Kaibab National Forest will lift all fire restrictions across the Williams and Tusayan Ranger Districts at 8 a.m. Wednesday as well as the area closure of the Bill Williams Mountain watershed. Due to different weather conditions, however, Stage II fire restrictions will remain in effect for the entire North Kaibab Ranger District, which is located north of the Grand Canyon.

Today, fire crews were able to determine the size of the Indian Meadow Fire to be approximately 550 acres. Crews have the fire 60% contained. They have been able to make significant progress on the fire overnight. The weather is not a concern today as winds have been very mild allowing firefighters to move toward full containment faster.

On April 23rd, 2018 at approximately 2:00pm, the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office issued evacuation warnings for the Woodland Ranch area near Valle Arizona due to a quick spreading wild fire. As of 7:30 pm, the Evacuation for the Indian Meadow Fire/Lateral Fire will be lifted by the Coconino County Sheriff's Office .

All residents will be allowed back into their homes.

On April 23rd, 2018 at approximately 2:00 p.m.,  the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office issued Evacuation warnings for the Woodland Ranch Area near Valle Arizona due to a wild fire. 

Coconino County Sheriff Deputies responded to  the Woodlands Ranch rd area in response to a wild land fire call.  A Code Red evacuation warning has been issued for a 1 mile radius of the Woodland Ranch Road area and a pre evacuation for an extended area 5 miles beyond that . At this time reports of structure loss have been reported.   

Fire managers on the south zone of the Kaibab National Forest will resume implementation on the Sunflower prescribed fire project beginning Saturday of this week. With red flag conditions subsiding and a measure of moisture in the immediate forecast, favorable weather conditions have presented an opportunity to continue with treatments in this specific area.

Fire managers for the South Zone of the Kaibab National Forest plan to treat up to 320 acres with prescribed fire tomorrow in the Sunflower Project area on the Williams Ranger District.

Specifically, fire managers plan to ignite the 320 acres in an area just south of Forest Road 139 and east of Hyde Hill about 8 miles southeast of the City of Williams. Ignitions should be complete by early afternoon, and fire managers do not anticipate conducting any other prescribed fires on the Williams Ranger District this week.