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Firecrews Making Progress on Gladiator Fire

Airtanker Drops Retardant on Gladiator Fire, May 20, 2012
Kari Greer
/
US Forest Service
Airtanker Drops Retardant on Gladiator Fire, May 20, 2012

Red Flag warnings are causing the Gladiator Fire to spread quicker than it has in recent days. 

The damage increased over 600 acres since Monday.  It now stands at just over 15,600 acres.

Control numbers continue to rise, with the fire now 26% contained.

Some of the resources used on the fire are being diverted to new wildfires in Arizona.

Gerry Perry with the Gladiator Fire Incident Management Team:

“We did lose four air tankers that left for other fires.”

That leaves the fire crew with two flame-retardant dropping planes.

Perry also says some of the aircraft they still have are having trouble with the high winds they saw on Tuesday afternoon.

“We have a number of large helicopters, however with the high winds this afternoon, they’ve been sidelined a little bit.”

High winds are forecasted to continue in the area until the weekend.