Managers on the Pocket Fire say it’s now grown to more than 20,000 acres as crews continue to hold and reinforce containment lines.
As of Thursday morning, they’d contained 21% of the blaze, mostly on its northern boundary and eastern edge.
Fire officials say crews have made solid progress on many areas of the fire, especially its northern edge. They expect to reassign some fire personnel to other areas soon.
However, the Pocket Fire remains active on its southern portion in the Red Rock-Secret Mountain wilderness north of Sedona and near the Seven Canyons and Enchantment resorts. The wildfire is also actively burning in the West Fork Canyon area and firefighters are working to keep it from progressing toward Oak Creek Canyon to the east and onto the plateau above.
On Thursday smoke again heavily impacted Flagstaff and surrounding communities where air quality has reached “very unhealthy” levels in recent days, according to air sensors. The National Weather Service says smoke will again be at its worst in Flagstaff during the afternoon before dissipating in the early morning hours when it’ll shift to Sedona and Cottonwood. Forecasters expect the smoke to follow the same pattern again Friday.
Smoke from the wildfire was expected to be very visible from Sedona where it remains several miles from most communities.
Firefighters have installed sprinkler systems in Kachina Village, where residents have returned to Ready status, and in Oak Creek Canyon which remains under a Set pre-evacuation notification.
