Initially, the firefighters faced high temperatures, strong winds and dry conditions as the fire quickly expanded from 1,000 to 6,000 acres and eventually to 10,000 acres over the first few days, with no containment.
First responders caught a break when the weather shifted slightly, providing the area with some rain the first few days of July. The first containment report was issued on July 3, indicating a 6% containment rate.
The fire has burned 11,027 acres as of July 8, according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs–Navajo Region.
The containment efforts were the result of the diligence of the firefighters, the BIA stated, which “allowed them to secure additional line in areas that were previously uncontained.”
The Navajo Nation Police Department, BIA–Navajo Region and Southwest Complex Incident Management Team 2 lifted all evacuation statuses in all zones on Tuesday morning.
“No evacuations of any type are in effect,” the responding agencies stated. “All residents are allowed to return to their residences.”
Even as the evacuation orders are lifted, the Navajo Nation Police Department has issued a public safety closure surrounding the fire area, as it remains an active incident with firefighters and equipment working to achieve full containment of the fire.
Hazards, such as stump holes, ash pits and hazardous trees, still exist within the fire footprint, according to the responding agencies. Additionally, members of the Burn Area Emergency Response Team will collect valuable data for post-fire recovery and response.
“The public is asked to abide by this closure and to not enter the area,” they stated.
The evacuation centers at the Ganado Field House and the Window Rock High School Event Center are closed, and the Navajo Nation Department of Management is preparing to pack and distribute donations to local chapter houses in the coming days. No more donations are being accepted for the Oak Ridge Fire.
Families who had livestock evacuated and are being sheltered at the Navajo Nation fairground have been advised to work with the Navajo Nation Department of Agriculture to coordinate the pickup and return of their livestock.
Hundreds of people responded in different ways to support the communities affected by the Oak Ridge Fire, from firefighting and evacuation efforts to donation drives and livestock assistance.
Multiple levels of resources and support contributed to the Oak Ridge Fire response. For one chapter house, council delegate and volunteer, their efforts include going door-to-door, distributing donations and helping displaced individuals feel more at home.
A Chapter’s Response
When the Oak Ridge Fire began, officials from the St. Michaels Chapter immediately took action and activated their community emergency response team as part of the chapter’s emergency response plan.
“It’s been tough,” said St. Michaels Chapter Vice President Craig Tsosie, who has been on the ground working with his community since the fire started on June 28.
He served as his chapter’s incident commander and led numerous on-the-ground operational efforts to support the community, including going door-to-door to inform people about the fire. Tsosie assisted families in evacuating their livestock and worked closely with volunteers during the donation intake and distribution process.
It took the work of volunteers, staff, and elected officials in the area to provide some sense of relief to their community, Tsosie said, because many Navajo people who were impacted were often confused about what to do.
“We’ve been doing the best we can to assist them,” he said.
St. Michaels Chapter President-elect Grabrial Arviso Freeland said they had a draft of the plan ready to share with the chapter before the fire hit.
“We never thought we would use it this quickly,” he said. Since the St. Michaels Chapter is its own governing body, it had the power to establish its emergency response team outside the Navajo Nation government’s response.
“It’s been intense,” he said, and they have only been successful in their response because of the volunteers and donations that came in to support them.
“We’re only five people strong as officials and staff — but with the volunteers, that has allowed us to account for who is going to handle the food distribution and care packages,” he added.
The chapter house responded to the wildfire in three phases. The first was an immediate response, which involved direct fire support from officials at the chapter house. The second was community support, ensuring they had access to resources, and the final phase was recovery, helping the community get back on its feet.
The St. Michaels Chapter House’s proactive response to the Oak Ridge Fire was a key part of their reassurance to the community, Tsosie said, because their elected officials are actively helping out the community.
Tsosie said they went out to as many houses as they could to warn people about the fire. They worked with families to evacuate their livestock and even took the chapter houses’ road-grading equipment to create fire lines around some of the homes.
“We took the dragger out and we made a big ol’ circle around their houses,” He said. They did that for about 60 houses from St. Michaels to Hunters Point.
“We didn’t go in there blindly,” Freeland said of their fire response efforts for the houses. They maintained contact with all the responding agencies and took their historical preservation team with them to ensure they did not disturb any critical areas.
The chapter established its incident command operations at St. Michaels Senior Center. They had five main areas of operation: incident command, operation lead, kitchen lead, donation lead and warehouse lead.
Chapter house staff documented all donations received to track their origin and the amount provided. Freeland said that it is required as part of their emergency response and it holds them accountable for donation intake.
Tsosie said they served families from Oak Springs, Hunters Point and St. Michaels as part of their response efforts, ensuring that individuals directly impacted received the donations.
There was a misconception that the donations were for anyone living in these communities, he said, and he often had to inform the public that they were only for families directly impacted by the fire.
The chapter house received donations from various entities on and off the Navajo Nation, including bales of hay, bottled water, snacks, bedding and hygiene products.
Native Health put a call out for donations to support families affected by the Oak Ridge Fire and has sent multiple loads of donations to the Navajo Nation, including the St. Michaels Chapter House.
Native Health Executive Director Walter Murillo said the extension of this help is part of his organization’s commitment to representing the community and addressing their need for aid in Native communities and families across Arizona.
On July 4, Native Health Phoenix board member Kimberly Dutcher delivered a carload of donations to St. Michaels, including bedding, water, snacks, toothbrushes and more.
Native Health is a health care agency in Phoenix that offers a variety of programs, including primary medical, dental and behavioral health services.
Dutcher is from the St. Michaels area. She said the response Native Health received for donations was truly overwhelming and heartening because the community came together to support its people.
“It’s a small part, but when one does their part, the combined efforts make a difference,” she said, adding that she hopes the victims of the fire will be able to regain some normalcy after this.
As of July 3, the chapter’s donation center served 100 residents from St. Michaels, 48 Oak Spring residents and 11 from Pine Springs.
With the fire nearing full containment, the chapter house deactivated its emergency response team on July 6. They stopped accepting donations and shifted to recovery efforts.
“As we transition from emergency response to recovery and mitigation, St. Michaels Chapter remains committed to supporting our community in the days ahead,” the chapter posted on their Facebook page.
“We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the many surrounding communities and organizations for their overwhelming generosity and support during the Oak Ridge Fire response,” they wrote.
Freeland said they hope to provide an update to the St. Michaels community about their efforts during the Oak Ridge Fire, especially since not everyone was involved or impacted.
He said they want to be accountable for the resources they use and the donations they receive and show the community exactly how many people they serve.
“The main thing is to be transparent with the community,” Tsosie said, explaining that there has been some frustration in the community about their response.
By being transparent, Tsosie said that would reassure the community of what we’ve done, showing how many families have been helped and precisely what the chapter used.
“People were probably unaware that our equipment was out there,” he added. “We were the ones that have been out there, making buffers around their homes.”
After all the recovery efforts are done, Freeland said they will need to regroup to address some of the vulnerable points as a chapter operation and as a community when it comes to addressing future emergencies.
A Delegate’s Response
When the fire started, Navajo Nation Council Delegate Brenda Jesus was in Farmington, New Mexico, and received the call. She said she immediately began the drive back to her community. Jesus lives in St. Michaels and represents the Oak Springs and St. Michaels chapters.
“It’s been a rough couple of days,” Jesus said during an interview at the St. Michaels Senior Center on July 4. The impact of the Oak Ridge Fire within her communities was evident on her face as she frequently wiped away tears from her eyes before sharing her experience.
“I can honestly sit here and say that there were no structures impacted at all,” Jesus said, adding that she is happy she was able to provide her community some comfort and encouragement during the hard times.
“This is the first major wildfire that we’ve experienced,” she said, and it has been a learning experience that she hopes will spark discussion about an emergency response plan for the Navajo Nation so they have a team ready to respond.
“You need to be ready,” she added.
Jesus shared some of her frustration about the initial response from the central command center established by the Navajo Nation government, which never reached out to her directly about the fire.
“It’s sad to say that President Nygren and Vice President Montoya haven’t even visited St. Michaels or Oak Springs,” she said.
Jesus has been on the ground working with her communities since the very beginning. She has gone out into the community, providing updates door-to-door. Directed families to available resources and listened to their overarching concerns.
Jesus said she was disappointed with how the Navajo Nation Incident Command Center managed the emergency response for her community because the St. Michaels area had the most evacuees, with over 100 people displaced.
“My evacuees weren’t getting the care they needed at the event center, nor the necessities that they needed,” she said, adding that many reported to her that they were often provided snacks rather than a hot meal to get them through the day.
The Window Rock Fighting Scouts Event Center in Fort Defiance became the main shelter for anyone displaced by the Oak Ridge Fire. Volunteers and donations poured into the center to help the affected families.
In the early days of the fire, the media were allowed into the event center to speak with evacuees, but on July 3, the Arizona Mirror was denied access.
“I’ve been boots on the ground and we’ve been denied services and even have our own Navajo Nation departments try to shut down our little operation,” Jesus said. The St. Michaels command center underwent multiple inspections to maintain operations.
She said she has been in constant contact with community members, calling and texting them to remind them to watch for the fire and know when it is time to leave. She said she lost count of how many people she interacted with during her on-the-ground efforts.
“Racing back and forth on the road, just trying to get updates,” she said. “It was really heartbreaking.”
Jesus said she recalls being out in the woods at 1 a.m. trying to help a family get their sheep and goats into a trailer so they can all be evacuated.
“That’s their livelihood,” she said.
As they work on recovery efforts, Jesus said she hopes that officials will begin focusing on emergency response actions that will help their community, including having an updated map of their area that marks all the occupied homes.
“We had zero information,” she said in terms of the location of all the houses within her chapters that would be in the line of the fire. “It’s very sad.”
“I’m working on the emergency response plan so that we’re readily available next time a disaster like this should happen,” she said, adding that she is advocating for staff and elected officials to take part in FEMA training.
Jesus said that what happened with the Oak Ridge Fire weighed on her heart, and at the end of each day, she would sit at her table to reflect on the day’s events.
“It brought tears to my eyes, but I’m glad that I was there to try to help as much as we can,” she said.
A Volunteer’s Response
Navajo woman Glenda Tsosie Wheeler is certified in community emergency response, and her first instinct was to respond when the Oak Ridge Fire broke out.
“I wanted to put it to good use,” Wheeler said, so she loaded up her truck and drove to Window Rock from her home in Steamboat, Arizona, to volunteer her services. Her daughter, Jaynica Wheeler, has been with her every step of the way.
Wheeler said she really enjoys helping her people anywhere and everywhere she can, and that is what brought her to Window Rock. She worked with the Incident Command Team, volunteered at the shelter and held various other roles.
Her first day, on June 28, was in Fort Defiance, where she handled numerous intake efforts for donations and evacuees.
Wheeler said she was often stationed with the people impacted by the fire and provided them assistance in any way she could.
“It’s been very tough,” she said.
Wheeler said that many of the families who came into the emergency shelter were frustrated and confused because they were being forced out of their homes.
“They came as is,” she said because many didn’t have enough time to take anything from their home. “Some of them came in with ash on them, or they had some red dye on them.”
It was a very emotional situation, Wheeler said, and many of the families coming in were in tears due to the stress.
Rather than traveling the hour back to her home in Steamboat, Wheeler said that she and her daughter often slept in their truck in between volunteer shifts.
Wheeler said the last person she worked with at the shelter expressed his gratitude toward her for taking care of him while he was there.
“It made me cry, because he is a stranger to me, and he doesn’t know me, and I don’t know him, but I managed to take care of him,” she added.
Wheeler said she was happy to help her community in need, and she continues to assist with the recovery efforts. She is helping with the distribution efforts led by the Navajo Nation and the chapters.
She hopes to see more community members and officials invest in emergency training, as it will continue to be necessary.
“Emergencies don’t have boundaries,” she said. “We all have to help one another and learn from the experience."
This story was originally produced by Arizona Mirror, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.