Fire managers announced Wednesday that the Pocket Fire north of Sedona has surpassed 17,000 acres — but is now 20% contained.
It marks the first measurable containment reported since the wildfire began on June 19.
Officials say improved weather and aggressive burnout operations helped crews establish control in some areas after days of extreme fire behavior and wind-driven spread.
“When they announced 20%, there was actually some applause at the briefing from the firefighters. I never had seen that before at a briefing. But, you know, everyone that's been here this whole time knows that work really hard and it's starting to pay off. But we still have to be very cautious,” says fire spokesperson Dick Fleishman.
Fire remains active to the east near West Fork and to the south near Seven Canyons.
The Coconino National Forest wrote in a social media post that the fire is still dynamic and “far from over.”
Tuesday night, crews burned around upper West Fork in case the fire burns up and out of the canyon. Now their building lines along the northern and southern rims of the West Fork.
“So the west side is pretty well buttoned up. We're going to hold that burnout today,” Fleishman says. “We're not going to be able to put people down in [West Fork], but we're working it on the top and just trying to stay ahead of it basically. The fire will align in the bottom of that canyon and run to the top when it gets that opportunity.”
He says fire activity in West Fork is the primary threat keeping residents in Oak Creek Canyon on “Set” status for evacuation.
The fire is also still burning through steep canyon terrain north of Sedona, complicating suppression efforts.
Fleishman says the fire has burned into more accessible areas of the Secret Mountain Wilderness Area. That allowed fire crews to hike up to the blaze and start working on the first containment lines on its southern edge.
“They’ll be putting in these little hand lines from rock to rock just to try and actually get a containment line on that bottom piece,” Fleishman says. “Down there, we're at much lower elevation. So they're in the 90s during the day and they're in direct sunlight. It's rough country and that's very hot, slow, tedious work.”
Over the weekend, heavy winds pushed the fire thousands of acres to the northeast. That prompted officials to place Oak Creek Canyon, Forest Highlands, Kachina Village and Pine Dell on SET status, which is still in effect.
The Incident Management Team will host a public meeting at the Red Rock Junior and Senior High School at 7 p.m. Thursday. Fire officials will provide information about the Pocket Fire and take questions. The meeting will also be live streamed on the Coconino National Forest Facebook page.
