30 June, 2017
Residents of Mayer returned to their homes at 10 a.m. The Interagency has raised the danger level, which helps mobilize additional resources. John Pierson, the incident commander for the Goodwin Fire told AZ Central the fire had claimed at least some structures around Piney Flat, but he could not say if any homes were destroyed.
There are 28 fires burning in Arizona, impacting thousands of acres and multiple communities.
Residents of Mayer, a town of 1,400 people evacuated on Tuesday, were allowed to return home on Thursday morning, said Dwight Develyn, a spokesman for the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office. She grabbed her three dogs and rushed to a nearby high school in Prescott Valley, sleeping on a cot and eating Subway sandwiches.
The Goodwin Fire is still too risky for fire officials to make a good assessment of the conditions or to even find out how many structures have been destroyed.
Stoked by high winds as it roared through dense, sun-baked chaparral, the blaze raged largely unchecked for the first few days, but by late Thursday evening firefighting teams had managed to carve containment lines around 43 percent of the perimeter.
It comes on the heels of a near two-week heat wave that settled over the Southwest earlier this month, bringing temperatures of up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
Gov. Doug Ducey issued a state of emergency Wednesday setting aside $200,000 for Yavapai County.
The Kentucky Division of Forestry announced it is sending 15 firefighters to Arizona to assist with the fires near the city of San Carlos.
A force of about 800 firefighters, backed by airplane tankers dumping payloads of flame-retardant chemicals, benefited from diminished winds and increased humidity in the region which helped slow the fire's growth and intensity, officials said.
Campgrounds were also emptied and 1,400 children attending summer camps were bused out as the fire approached.
In neighboring Utah, a massive blaze in Brian Head is burning around 60,000 acres, spurring evacuations.
Fires that flared dangerously close to homes in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles and in the city of Burbank were knocked down.
"After meeting with the fire marshal, we decided that it would be in the best interest of the entire area to cancel the event", Mayor Darryl Croft said Thursday.
CNN reports that fire officials are urging caution on Independence Day as fireworks combined with the conditions could lead to even more fires.
