Arizona wildfire near Superior triples in size since Friday

The Associated Press

5 years ago

A photo from the Facebook page of the Tonto National Forest shows smoke coming Sunday, June 16, ... — A photo from the Facebook page of the Tonto National Forest shows smoke coming Sunday, June 16, 2019, from an area 13 miles north of Boyce Thompson Arboretum in Superior, Ariz. (Tonto National Forest via Facebook)

SUPERIOR, Ariz. — A human-caused wildfire in east-central Arizona near Superior continues to grow and remains uncontained.

The Woodbury Fire that has been burning for a week now in the Tonto National Forest has charred about 57 square miles of grass and brush in rugged terrain as of Sunday morning.

The fire has tripled in size since Friday due to hot and dry conditions.

Smoke Report – June 16, 2019
Central Arizona/#WoodburyFire

PDF: https://t.co/bqevflnZCR pic.twitter.com/YaiKE9ie5s

— Tonto NF (@TontoForest) June 16, 2019

It’s now about 5 miles northwest of Superior. But authorities say there are no threats yet to the communities of Queen Valley Estates, Gold Canyon, Kings Ranch, Superior and Apache Junction.

Incident management officials say firefighting efforts on the fire’s north end will concentrate on protecting campgrounds, infrastructure, powerlines and businesses along State Highway 88.

More than 720 firefighters and other personnel are assigned to the blaze.

Tonto National Forest is about 350 miles southeast of Las Vegas.