Hundreds evacuated as wildfire burns near Arizona town known for deadly 2013 blaze

Reporting from YARNELL, Ariz. —  Hundreds of people evacuated their homes as a wildfire raged near the Arizona town where a 2013 blaze killed 19 members of an elite firefighting crew.

Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Dolores Garcia said 250 to 300 people have left their homes in the community of Yarnell.

The fire has burned nearly a square mile but incident commander RobRoy Williams said its growth slowed overnight. He said light winds Thursday morning were blowing the fire away from Yarnell and that the weather forecast is favorable for several days.

Approximately 200 firefighters and other personnel are assigned to the fire, which is 10% contained, officials said.

Williams said the origin of the fire is under investigation, but that a human cause is suspected.

There have been no reports of injuries, the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office said.

The blaze was burning south and east of the site of the Yarnell Hill Fire in which members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots died when they got trapped by the flames nearly three years ago — the deadliest U.S. tragedy for wildland firefighters in several decades.

That lightning-caused wildfire destroyed nearly 130 homes in the area.

On Wednesday, some Yarnell homeowners said they saw smoke and received a voluntary evacuation notice on their cellphones.

“It’s horrific,” Jerry Florman told the Arizona Republic over the telephone as she left town around 6:30 p.m. local time “I’m halfway down the mountain with the dog. I’m guessing there will be plenty of people saying, ‘I’m not going to go back.’ It’s so hard.”

Florman and her husband, Kurt, lost their home in the fire three years ago and later purchased another home nearby.

The newspaper said the Flormans hoped that this fire would be extinguished quickly and be nowhere as devastating.

A Red Cross shelter for evacuees was set up at Yavapai College in nearby Prescott.

Highway 89 through Yarnell was shut down as U.S. Forest Service crews did back-burns and dug trenches while air tankers dropped slurry loads before nightfall.

Authorities said the fire appeared to be moving up mountain slopes to the northeast of Yarnell and away from the town, but that its western flank still was threatened.

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