Firefighters Take Advantage of Todays Cloud Cover

Cellar Fire – July 19, 2019 Evening Update

Acres: 7,393 acres (Based on more accurate mapping) Percent Containment: 18 %

Start Date: July 14, 2019 Cause: Lightning

Origin Location: 16 Miles South of Prescott, AZ Jurisdiction: Prescott National Forest

Fuels: Upper elevation: Ponderosa pine. Lower elevation: Brush, Grass and Chaparral

Resources: 594 personnel including 10 Hot Shot Crews, 6 Type 2 IA Crews, 1 Type 2 Crew, 2 Dozers, and 18 Engines

Todays unexpected cloud cover and higher humidity allowed firefighters to improve containment and hold any fire progress along the south and southwest perimeter of the fire. On the east side of the fire there was a little activity but retardant from airtankers kept the fire from moving. Dozers worked on creating fire line on north end of the fire as terrain allowed near Longfellow Springs. Crews continued to make good progress building fireline along the west and northwest side of the fire. An interactive Cellar Fire Map is available at https://tinyurl.com/CellarFireMap.

Fire crews will continue working on structure protection at Palace Station tonight and monitor hots spots along FS Road 52 (Senator HWY) on the east side of the fire down to Shady Dells. Cloud cover tonight will keep heat over the fire, but little fire activity is expected.

A Cellar Fire Community Meeting will be tomorrow, July 20, at 2pm at Crown King Fire Department, 7235 Main Street, Crown King, AZ. American Sign Language (ASL) and Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) services will be provided. We plan to livestream the meeting on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/PrescottNF/ and the recording will be posted after the meeting is over. If we are unable to livestream or lose the connection, we will record the meeting and post highlights afterwards. No Facebook account is required to view the video.

Thursday afternoon the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office issued a Code Red ‘GO’ mandatory evacuation for the residents located in Pine Flat. A shelter has been set up at the Prescott High School. For information on Code Red, evacuations and road closures please call Yavapai County EOC at 928-771-3321. The communities of Walker, Groom Creek, Wolf Creek, Potato Patch, Indian Creek and Crown King remain in ‘READY’ status. For information on Code Red alerts, visit the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/YavapaiCountySheriff/ or call (928) 771-3321 (7:00 am to 7:00 pm).

There is the potential for heavier smoke impacts into the weekend. Daily smoke outlooks are being posted to the Central Arizona Smoke Outlook at https://wildlandfiresmoke.net/outlooks/CentralArizona.

Firefighters will continue to actively engage in fully suppressing the fire where they can do so safely and effectively. This includes protecting values at risk including private property and infrastructure in and around Pine Flats, Potato Patch, Wolf Creek, Groom Creek, Indian Creek Walker, and Crown King.

Daily video updates are being posted on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/PrescottNF/.

There is a Cellar Fire Closure Area in effect on the Prescott National Forest. It includes everything south of Wolf Creek including Potato Patch, south to the community of Crown King. The community of Crown King remains open for business. Detailed information and a map are available on Inciweb at https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/6443/.

Cellar Fire Information: 928-925-1111 (8:00 am to 8:00 pm)

InciWeb: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/6443/ (Fire info, maps, photos, links to cooperators and related info)

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PrescottNF/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/prescottnf

Ready, Set, Go Information and Code Red Sign Up: http://www.ycsoaz.gov/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/YavapaiCountySheriff/

Read the entire article at: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/6443/