Firefighters Utilize Burnout Tactic to Combat Expanding Pocket Fire
The Pocket Fire, raging north of Sedona, has expanded beyond 11,000 acres with no containment achieved as of Monday morning. However, officials clarify that the significant increase in size is largely due to a strategic burnout, rather than the fire spreading further on its own.
This burnout operation, conducted on the fire’s western side near Fernow Cabin, is an intentional tactic that aims to eliminate vegetation in advance of the wildfire. By doing so, it creates buffer zones with minimal fuel available to burn, thus slowing the fire’s progress.
According to incident managers, the burnout is crucial as the Pocket Fire had been spotting nearly a mile ahead over the weekend. “Using dozens of dozers, it would take months to build a fire line a mile across, and it would leave horrible scars on the landscape,” Coconino National Forest officials stated in a social media post on Monday. “A burnout will remove fuel from the same area much more quickly and with far less damage to the landscape.”
Currently, around 900 firefighters and support personnel are engaged in battling the fire. Meanwhile, the communities of Kachina Village, Forest Highlands, and Pine Del near Flagstaff remain on alert, prepared for potential evacuation if necessary.
A virtual public meeting is scheduled to be livestreamed on the Coconino National Forest Facebook page at 7 p.m.
Starting Tuesday at 8 a.m., officials from the Coconino National Forest, City of Flagstaff, and Coconino County will enforce stage 2 fire restrictions to prevent further outbreaks.
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