Wildfire — Yavapai County Mountains, Arizona

2013-06-28 to 2013-06-30 · Yavapai County Mountains, Arizona

Event narrative

The Yarnell Hill Fire was started by lightning around 536 PM on Friday June 28 about 3.5 miles west of Yarnell. The fire grew to about 6 acres by Saturday morning. Strong outflow winds form a thunderstorm northeast of Prescott hit the fire Sunday afternoon. The wind caused the fire to blow up and it overtook 19 Granite Mountain Hot Shots. They all perished. The fire grew to around 8,300 acres by the end of June (the final size was 8,400 acres). The Yavapai County Sheriff's Office said that 127 buildings in Yarnell and two in Peeples Valley were destroyed in the fire.

Officials shut down 25 miles of Arizona State Route 89 shortly after the fire started. All of Yarnell was evacuated and part of Peeples Valley was evacuated (at least 600 people total). The Red Cross said that 351 people spent at least one night at one of their shelters.

A Type 2 incident management team was in charge of the fire late on June 30, with a Type 1 team ordered. Southwest Area Type 1 IMT assumed management of the fire on July 1.

Resources on June 30 included 16 engines, eight water tenders, two crash-rescue vehicles, two structure protection vehicles, one bulldozer, one hotshot crew (with another four on order), seven Type 2 handcrews, a camp crew, and four Type 2 hand crews on order. One very large airtanker (VLAT) and an air attack unit were also on order.

Wider weather episode

The Yarnell Hill Fire started around 536 PM by lightning on Friday June 28th, 2013 about 3.5 miles west of Yarnell, Arizona. The average daily temperature was above average for this area from June 26-July 10...and more than 10 degrees above average for June 28-July 1. The fire grew to about 8,300 acres by the end of June and a total of 8,400 acres before it was fully contained on July 10 around 600 PM. The Yavapai County Sheriff's Office said that 127 buildings in Yarnell and two in Peeples Valley were destroyed in the fire. On Sunday June 30, 2013 around 547 PM, strong winds from a thunderstorm to the northeast pushed the fire over 19 Hot Shots. They all perished.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 459593. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.