/ Modified jun 8, 2016 3 p.m.

Wildfires Have Burned 30,000 Acres in Coronado This Year

Active year has had numerous human-caused fires, which are all preventable, official says.

Catalina Mountains fire, wildfire Aug 2015 A lightning-caused fire burns near Finger Rock in the Catalina Mountains; August 5, 2015.
Kevin Raubenolt, AZPM

More than 30,000 acres have burned in 35 fires so far this year in Southern Arizona’s Coronado National Forest, the forest's information officer said this week.

Coronado information officer Heidi Schewel said the numbers are not a surprise in what has become a year-round fire season.

“It was predicted that we would have an active wildfire season this year, and it certainly has materialized,” Schewel said.

She said the forest is filled with dried grasses and other vegetation that make conditions ripe for fire, including at higher elevations earlier in the year than normal.

“There’s a lot of excess fuel, and we saw several weeks ago a fire in an area that had a lot of dead and down wood - dead and downed logs - which really retain a lot of heat," she said. "So it took quite an effort to get that fire to the point where it wasn’t going to spread any more.”

Nearly all fires so far this year have been human caused, and Schewel said every such incident is preventable.

Watch a half-hour report on Southern Arizona wildfire dangers Friday at 8:30 p.m. and Sunday at 11 a.m. on Arizona Week, PBS 6.

By posting comments, you agree to our
AZPM encourages comments, but comments that contain profanity, unrelated information, threats, libel, defamatory statements, obscenities, pornography or that violate the law are not allowed. Comments that promote commercial products or services are not allowed. Comments in violation of this policy will be removed. Continued posting of comments that violate this policy will result in the commenter being banned from the site.

By submitting your comments, you hereby give AZPM the right to post your comments and potentially use them in any other form of media operated by this institution.
AZPM is a service of the University of Arizona and our broadcast stations are licensed to the Arizona Board of Regents who hold the trademarks for Arizona Public Media and AZPM. We respectfully acknowledge the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of Indigenous peoples.
The University of Arizona