Sit Rep 1 – June 3, 2023, Saturday

Incident Summary

A wildfire named the Miller Fire was being monitored by Officials on Monday, May 22nd, after being reported on May 20th but due to adverse weather conditions, aircraft were unable to fly or confirm the fire until two days later.

Photo (Left) Credit | Coconino National Forest (USFS)

Inaccessibility was reported as well as incoming potential thunderstorms, allowing enabling fire resources to watch the impending situation.

The fire is located in the Secret Mountain Wilderness of the Coconino National Forest’s Red Rock Ranger District.

Fire Behavior Increases

Fire behavior began to change day-by-day with the fire size reaching 10 acres on the morning of the 23rd, then 19 acres by the evening’s update. Work had been done on the 24th with a successful placement of a line but by the afternoon, the fire’s forward progression still had not been stopped and increasing the size to 50 acres.

On the evening of the 25th, the fire size was downgraded to an estimated 35 acres. A closure was issued for the area surrounding the fire including all Secret Mountain Loop trails. Behavior was reported at this time as moving a low forward rate of spread through the brush, timber, and rocky terrain, southwest to the south side of Secret Canyon and Maroon Mountain.

Fire Operations

On the 28th of May, crews had successfully a 31% containment status being reached with the fire holding at 30 acres with minimal fire activity being observed with smoldering.

Crews are working this weekend to install cameras to monitor the fire, vertical cliffs, make it impossible for a line to be placed around the full perimeter.

(c) 2023 NW Fire Blog