Smoke lingers in GV vicinity from wildfires

Smoke from wildfires, including one in the Tumac‘cori Mountains, filtered through the Santa Cruz Valley earlier this week, partially trapped by high barometric pressure.

Tubac residents said late Tuesday they could smell smoke from the fire. Light smoke was visible east of Green Valley and Sahuarita, having drifted into the Santa Rita Mountains.

Most of the state’s wildfires were lightning caused, according to the U.S. Forest Service. The start of the upcoming monsoon season promises more lightning strikes in July and August.

While fires here were onerous, it was nothing compared to California, where more than 840 wildfires were burning Tuesday.

There were two fires in the Rincon Mountains east of Tucson and two more in the Arivaca area, the Forest Service reported.

None of the four blazes threatened structures and there were no reported injuries.

Fortunately, because of the high pressure, there was little wind.

The Rincon Mountain fires were the Cumaro fire of about 700 acres and the Distillery fire of about 4,000 acres.

The Cumero fire was reported contained Tuesday and the larger Distillery fire was still growing.

The Forest Service said a special team of firefighters were summoned to fight it.

The Cumaro fire burned in gentle terrain through mesquite and grass on the southern half while to the north it burned in steep terrain with oak savanna vegetation.

The Distillery fire burned in mesquite and grass and oak-woodland.

Four crews with a total of about 80 firefighters battled the blaze on the ground, while one air tanker and helicopter fought it from the air.

Two heavy helicopters were on order.

Twelve miles east of Arivaca, the Nuevo fire burned over 50 acres and the White Tank fire burned over at least 80 acres 17 miles east of Arivaca.

These were believed to be human caused.

Local weather reports showed the high pressure was holding here, while one Phoenix weather report said it was weakening and falling there.

When high pressure centers on the Four Corners area, it is the beginning of the summer thunderstorm season.

There’s also a small fire in the Chiricahua Mountains in Southeastern Arizona.

And in Eastern Arizona about 80 firefighters attacked a fire in the Apache-Sitgraves National Forest, the Hot Air fire.

That fire forced closure of nearly 30 miles of U.S. 191.

Six engines and a helicopter were used in the fight.

A California state forestry and fire protection official said Monday an unusually long lightning storm triggered most of the fires in the northern part of that state.

“This is an unprecedented lightning storm in California, that lasted as long as it did, 5,000 to 6,000 lightning strikes” said the official, Del Walters.

He said “We are finding fires all the time.”

An Associated Press photo showed a tanker emptying its load of red slurry on a fire near Green Valley, Calif.

jlamb@gvnews.com | 547-9749