The manager of Forest Houses Resort, a hotel near the Pocket Fire, says they’re concerned about it dropping down into Oak Creek Canyon, threatening businesses and homes in a unique riparian habitat.
Dick Fleishman, a spokesperson for the team working the fire, says he shares that concern, though he added the fire was “looking much better” on Saturday evening. As of 5:30 p.m. Saturday, the fire remains at roughly 500 acres with no containment, he says.
“I was actually down in Sedona and [have] been looking at the fire all day, there's very little smoke on it today,” says Fleishman, an information officer with the Southwest Area Incident Management Team II. “The work they did last night to actually get a dozer line around the top to keep it from spreading to the east looks like it's holding well, just by the amount of smoke.”
But the concern for the slew of hotshot crews and agencies is the east side of the fire, where officials can't put any firefighters due to the steep slopes. Helicopters and other aircraft are being used to fight the fire on that side, Fleishman adds.
State Route 89A remains closed between Fort Tuthill in Flagstaff and the north end of Sedona.
The Coconino County Sheriff's Office escorted some visitors and residents into the canyon on Saturday to let them retrieve camping equipment and essential items, according to a post on social media.
Coconino County officials gave the “Go” order Friday evening for all residents and visitors between Sedona and Forest Highlands.
Resort owner shares her thoughts
Jenny Kittredge is the manager of Forest Houses Resort, a 20-acre log cabin resort hotel inside Oak Creek Canyon near the Pocket Fire. She talked to KNAU while still on property within the evacuation zone.
“We are concerned,” says Kittredge. “It is pretty much right over the canyon wall from us, because we're very close to the A.B. Young Trail, which goes directly up to East Pocket. I believe as the crow flies, we're just a couple of miles away from the fire, and we've seen where wind can turn fire around pretty instantly, and where basically anything can happen.”
She says she and others at Forest Houses have been waiting for updates and watching what’s unfolding from the property. The hotel evacuated all of its guests yesterday and is cancelling reservations today. Kittredge says she’s “packed up and ready to go at a moment's notice.”
“From what we're hearing, there's so many crews on this fire, and they're working for a total direct suppression effort – I really hope that they are able to keep it out of the canyon,” Kittredge says. “So unless it starts dropping into the canyon, that's when we're going to get really nervous. But at least now, it's outside of the canyon.”
If it comes down into the canyon, she says the Pocket Fire could threaten older buildings and properties with a lot of history. That includes Forest Houses.
“This property, Forest Houses, has been in my family for almost 100 years now, and there's just a lot of history and importance to us here,” Kittredge says. “It's just a really special place for so many across the state and across the West to come and visit this area, so it holds a lot of importance for so many people.”
Incident management spokesperson weighs in
Fleishman shares Kittredge’s views on the value of Oak Creek Canyon, which he says is designated as a unique waterway in Arizona. He ticked through the risks the fire poses to the area, starting with its status as a riparian habitat.
“Any kind of riparian [habitat], which is vegetation associated with streams, is very unique,” he says. “[The] habitat is key to that for a lot of different species that don’t occur in the uplands. [There’s] also just the scenic value of it and the values at risk from personal property, too. There's a lot of reasons why this thing has transitioned into a complex incident.”
He says the Southwest Area Incident Management Team II is taking over the response to the fire at 6 a.m. Sunday morning. They’re one of 57 complex incident management teams in the country, with four of them based out of the Southwest.
“As the complexity ramps up, you actually can bring in more personnel and highly qualified teams,” Fleishman says of the new team.
The potential for the fire to spill over into the canyon is part of the reason the team is taking over, he explains.
“It gets very difficult to contain on those steep slopes,” Fleishman says. “Most of our personnel are up top, but we have a lot of engines actually working down in Oak Creek Canyon, looking at values at risk there, and also Seven Canyons Resort area, looking at values at risk there. If they need to do any kind of triage work to remove fuels, if the fire comes that way, they'll be ready for that.”
If the fire comes down the hillside into the canyon, even once it’s put out by firefighters, there’s the potential for post-fire flooding in the years to come, he says.
