Current as of 4/24/2022, 9:10:41 PM
Incident Type: Wildfire
Cause: Undetermined
Date of Origin: Monday April 18th, 2022 approx. 10:00 AM
Location: 11 miles south of Prescott Arizona
Incident Commander: Rocky Opliger, CIIMT 4
Coordinates: 34.403 latitude, -112.426 longitude
Current Situation
Total Personnel: 675
Size: 3,914 Acres
Percent of Perimeter Contained: 22%
Fuels Involved: Timber (Litter and Understory), Chaparral
Significant Events
Fire continues to actively burn within the Ash Creek drainage, with slope runs up multiple aspects when finding alignment.
A light north wind is influencing spread to the south, but runs are occurring up east and west facing slopes in the drainage.
Spotting is being observed up to a 1/4 mile due wind wind of slope runs.
Projected Incident Activity
Poor recovery will keep fire actively burning over the next 12 hours, with spread being dictated by winds and/or slope.
Current Weather
Weather Concerns
Sunday: Dry conditions were observed over the fire, with afternoon humidity dipping to around 10%. Otherwise, the fire saw sunny skies, light northerly ridgetop winds and high temperatures in the 60s.
Sunday night: A round of poor humidity recovery is expected, with relative humidity remaining below 30%. Otherwise, light northeast ridgetop winds are forecast.
Predicted: on Monday, high pressure with strengthen over the area bringing another round of very dry conditions, with afternoon humidity below 10%. Ridgetop winds will blow from the east to southeast but will vary based on terrain influences. Wind speeds will be the lightest of the next several days.
On Tuesday, very low humidity will combine with increasing south winds to produce near critical fire weather conditions.
Saturday, drier fuels with lower humidity led to increased fire activity on the southwest flank, creating a large smoke plume visible from Prescott and the surrounding communities. Helicopters and air tankers dropped water and retardant which assisted firefighters in slowing fire growth on the southwest side near Ash Creek drainage. The fire was moderately active, burning surface fuels in the vicinity of Yankee Doodle Peak. Firefighters continued to mop up (making sure the fire is out by dousing hot spots with water) from Mt. Union around the northeast edge of the fire to Moscow Peak.