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YARNELL, Ariz. (AP) — Authorities say hundreds of people have fled their homes as a wildfire rages near the north-central Arizona town of Yarnell — the scene of a 2013 blaze that killed 19 members of an elite firefighting crew.
Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Dolores Garcia says 250 to 300 people evacuated homes in the town late Wednesday and an emergency shelter has been set up.
Yavapai County sheriff’s spokesman Dwight D’Evelyn said no injuries have been reported.
Garcia says the fire has grown to 600 acres, but fire crews expect it to ease somewhat during the overnight with cooler temperatures and higher humidity.
She says 3 out buildings have burned but no homes have been lost.
Three years ago, the 19 firefighters died when they got trapped by the flames in the deadliest tragedy for U.S. wildland firefighters in several decades.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
A brush fire threatened structures Wednesday in the north-central Arizona town of Yarnell — the scene of a 2013 wildfire in which 19 members of an elite firefighting crew were killed.
Some residents on the town’s east and west sides were being told to evacuate their homes as a precaution, Yavapai County sheriff’s spokesman Dwight D’Evelyn said.
He said no injuries have been reported and only one building has been burned in the fire estimated at 400 acres before nightfall. Television footage showed a garage engulfed in flames.
Dolores Garcia, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Land Management, said there was no lightning in the Yarnell area Wednesday and the cause of the fire was under investigation.
It was burning south of the town and east of the site of the Yarnell Hill Fire in which members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots died when they got trapped by the flames nearly three years ago — the deadliest U.S. tragedy for wildland firefighters in several decades.
That lightning-caused wildfire destroyed nearly 130 homes in the area.
On Wednesday, some Yarnell homeowners said they saw smoke and received a voluntary evacuation notice on their cellphones.
A Red Cross shelter for evacuees was set up at Yavapai College in Prescott.
Highway 89 through Yarnell was shut down as U.S. Forest Service crews did back-burns and dug trenches while air tankers dropped slurry loads before nightfall.
Authorities said the fire appeared to be moving up mountain slopes to the northeast of Yarnell and away from the town, but its western flank still was threatened.