PHOENIX – Pima County sheriff’s deputies went door to door in Santa Catalina Mountains overlooking Tucson on Thursday to notify residents of an expansion of the evacuation area threatened by a wildfire.
The Bighorn Fire’s evacuation area on Mount Lemmon was expanded Thursday, to include Willow Canyon, the Sheriff’s Department said.
It wasn’t immediately known how many homes were affected. Many houses on Mount Lemmon are summer cabins.
Fire officials said Thursday the fire had reached the north side of Mount Lemmon and also was to expected to push through a gap several miles to the north.
Crews were conducting burnouts to deprive the fire of fuel and improving containment lines in several areas to protect Mount Lemmon and the communities of Oracle and San Manuel.
The Bighorn Fire covered 37 square miles with containment around 40% of its perimeter as of Thursday morning.
Two other major fires continued to grow in the Kaibab National Forest north of the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona and in east-central Arizona in the Tonto National Forest northeast of metro Phoenix.
All three fires have caused evacuation of rural communities and partial or full closures of several highways.
No structures have been reported damaged.
