The National Weather Service has issued an Excessive Heat Warning for Maricopa, Pinal, and Yuma Counties for July 19-20; La Paz and Mohave Counties for July 19-21. Daytime highs are expected to be up to 118 °F. Public cooling centers are available in some areas. Stay hydrated, stay cool and stay informed.
A community meeting will take place on Monday, August 28, at 7:00 PM at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 546 W. Ashby Apple Drive, Payson, AZ. Fire managers have updated their assessment of accomplishments on the incident, increasing to 14% completion of operational objectives.
On the Valentine Fire, these objectives include confinement, point protection, and line preparation. Confinement involves restricting the fire to a defined area, primarily through use of natural barriers that are expected to restrict the spread of the wildfire under the prevailing and forecasted weather conditions. Point protection is a response strategy which protects specific assets or highly valued resources, and often involves using pumps, hoses, and sprinklers to protect structures and other identified values. Line preparation is the task of preparing an area by removing heavy concentrations of vegetation along roads and other holding features to prevent fire spread beyond the planned boundaries. Firefighters have been focusing the majority of their efforts on line preparation, completing approximately 90% of this work over the past several days. Collectively, these efforts align with the goals of the Forest Service Wildfire Crisis Strategy – to learn more, please visit: https://www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/wildfire-crisis.
Operations: The Valentine Fire acreage remains the same after yesterday’s storm brought precipitation and higher humidity to the area. Although rain fell on the fire, it continues to burn slowly within the defined planning area. In some places, this slow burning fire is smoldering without a flame; in other areas, the fire is barely spreading or creeping with a low flame. With the increased moisture, smaller vegetation such as grasses, twigs, and leaves are not drying out until late in the day, resulting in a shorter burning period for the fire. Crews are continuing to prepare the perimeter of the planning area by improving conditions along National Forest System Roads 291 and 411, and constructing handlines to limit fire spread between these roads. Firefighters are staying alert to changing conditions to provide for safety, pausing work when thunderstorms presents a hazard over the fire.
Weather: Conditions will be partly cloudy with light downslope winds in the morning. Isolated showers and thunderstorms are expected to develop around noon. Expect brief moderate to heavy rainfall, small hail, and cloud-to-ground lightning. Overall winds will be light and terrain-driven at 10 MPH, with higher wind gusts up to 30 MPH with thunderstorm outflows.
Closures: The Tonto National Forest has issued an emergency area closure for the Valentine Fire. The purpose of the closure order is to protect public health and safety during the Valentine Fire, and to protect assigned firefighting personnel engaging in wildland firefighting operations. The full closure order (No. 03-12-05-23-22) and map are available on the Tonto National Forest website: https://www.fs.usda.gov/alerts/tonto/alerts-notices/?aid=82769.
Safety: The health and safety of firefighters and the public are always the first priority. Members of the public should stay away from Valentine Fire operations. A temporary flight restriction (TFR) is in place over the area, which includes unmanned aircraft, or drones. More information on the dangers drones pose to wildland firefighting aircraft and personnel on the ground can be found at: https://uas.nifc.gov/.
Smoke: Smoke from the Valentine Fire may be visible in the surrounding areas. Learn more about smoke impacts on the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality website at https://azdeq.gov/wildfire-faqs.
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