Due to increased containment Wednesday on the #StrongholdFire, this morning, the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office – Mark J. Dannels Sheriff has lifted the GO notifications to residents and returned them to SET in the area: south of Ironwood Road and west of Cochise Stronghold Road. All residents initially in SET have been returned to READY.
The fire remained in its footprint again overnight with minimal activity to report. An infrared flight on Wednesday confirmed the acres at 2,138. It remains 54% contained.
For today’s operations, resources assigned to the north and east sides of the fire will continue to patrol and monitor within those areas, checking for any interior smokes or potential threats to the line in anticipation of this weekend’s forecast critical fire weather.
Along the east flank, hand crews previously completed and secured the hand line from Ironwood and Cochise Stronghold Roads south to Highland Road.
Along the southwest side, fire activity has decreased, but it remains hung up within the Dragoons in rocky and inaccessible terrain. The southeast side within Grapevine Canyon consists of similar terrain. Hotshot and hand crews are working in those areas and will finish putting line in along the ridgelines and where it is safe to do so. They will also monitor and respond to any hotspots or rollouts. Today, resources will expand the contingency line on the south side and tie it into Middlemarch Road. Firefighters are using direct, indirect, and point protection tactics to fully suppress the fire. Engine resources remain engaged, patrolling and monitoring the fire’s perimeter, and extinguishing any hot spots along the edge.
Due to aircraft usage, a TFR is in place and has been in place since the start of the fire. Over the last few days, two incursions within the TFR have been reported to Air Operations. Aircraft and drones flying within the restricted airspace is a danger to wildfire aircraft and boots on the ground. Many times suppression efforts have to be halted while aircraft gets grounded and ground operations get pulled of the line.
