We are starting with breaking news right now.
It's been almost 24 hours sincee
diamond fire erupted near Scottsdale,
and today more than 1000
people remain evacuated.
Good afternoon everyone, and thanks so
much for joining us for 12 News at 4.
I'm tram Mai and I'm cutting the divine.
Temperatures are rising and the
wind is picking up. Right now,
conditions are working against the crews.
This map shows where the diamond
fire erupted yesterday evening
in the far northeast valley,
the flames sparking near 128th .
and Ranch Gate Rd.
Then quickly spreading to the north and east,
threatening homes along that
northern red perimeter line,
planes dropping fire retardant
along those homes to save them s
the dry grass and desert brush.
Erupted in flames Right now we have live
team coverage on the Diamond Fire for you,
including the very latest on the
firefight and the people impact.
We want to start right now with Mark Curtis.
He's leading our coverage todaym
the Rural Metro Fire Station lod
near 164th St. and Real Verde.
Dr.
Mark,
what's the latest on the Diamond fire?
Well, tram, there are certain things you
can count on when you live in the desert.
As gorgeous as it is,
you can count on heat.
Which we have, You can count on,
windy conditions, which we have.
And unfortunately you can count on wildfires,
which we also have,
although this one is a little bt
unusual because it's not in a forest,
it's very close to an urban landscape
and that's the concern here,
so many homes involved.
The Arizona Department of Foresy
and Fire Management is now the
incident commander for this fir.
As you mentioned,
over 1100 residents have been evacuated,
but hats off to all of the firefighters
on the ground and in the air whd
a tremendous job yesterday attag
this fire in every way possible
before it could get out of hand.
Still,
it's estimated right now at about 2500
acres and there is 0% containme.
Although we're hoping when we
get the next update because fire
crews have been working throught
the day that that number will be
change a little bit and maybe w.
We will have some containment
by the end of the evening.
We want to bring in Captain Dave
Folio from Scottsdale fire,
the original incident commander on this fire.
And look, we're not in the lightning season.
We know this was human caused.
Dave. What's the latest on that?
Yeah, so we have determined
it was human cause.
It's under investigation and wel
wait for the investigation to be done.
Before we talk about that,
just want to talk about yesterd.
That call came out about this time, right?
4:30 in the afternoon.
It's hot, it's windy.
We're experiencing that right n.
You look in our desert areas,
it's it's thick because of the ,
the wet winter we had.
There's no doubt about it that
the conditions were ripe.
Our first in units.
We have 3 brush trucks out in the city,
Rome, in the city,
just looking for this type of incident.
Arrived on scene and had five to 10 acres,
well involved with dozens
of structures threatened.
So our crews, the Scottsdale,
the men and women of the
Scottsdale Fire Department and
our overall automatic aid syste,
we went to a first alarm immediately.
Got the ball rolling for the relationships
that we build with Tano State l,
the for Department of Forest Emergency
Management, fire management,
the relationships we've built.
We get on the phone and
we start those air*.
There's air assets right?
So it takes time to get those ordered,
get them in the air.
All that was coming,
the men and women of the Scottse
Fire Department to make the decn
to just bump and bump and run.
We do a bump and run,
we pull these Ganzer packs off our trucks.
It's forestry hose.
We can get in between buildings
and we make the decisions,
we just bump and run.
You take this one,
I'll take that one.
It's in a command system that ws
that worked tremendously yester.
The training we've done,
the men and women of the Scottse
Fire Department to lose only one
secondary structure is pretty amazing
when you look at it right now.
We're in that type time of the .
Right now though,
don't be deceived,
we're not seeing a lot of smoket
there's helicopters out there working
the the the new command structure has
brought in their additional 200 people.
Another 100 come and several trs
like she's mentioned the P I/O and yeah.
It was all hands on deck yesterday and we
knew this was we have the potential for this.
We still have the potential for this.
We're asking people to get a different
defensible space around their h,
15 to 30 feet,
clear out all this dead brush.
We're not asking you to cut down the trees.
Just bring it off the floor 4 f.
And yeah,
give us a chance to be able to
get in there and make a stop.
And
and it's really unusual because for the
most part you guys are involvedh
structure fires now all of a su.
You find yourself fighting a wildland
brush fire, and I'm guessing its
just a completely different ani.
Yeah. And. And the third truck
in was our ladder truck.
We don't take those off the roa.
We leave those on the road.
They're big, they're heavy.
But it gave us an advantage
the way the wind was blowing.
We put that ladder truck up.
You always want to have,
We want to be working in the black or
an anchor point from a roadway, right?
We don't want to put our people
out in front of this fire.
Yesterday the men and women of
Scottsdale fire department I'm
telling you they put their selvs
in between the fire and these hs
to save them and and lives livek
tremendous job they did yesterd.
When you can look back at this r
our concern right now is the med
women still working out here tht
have taken this over it's hot and and
getting the people back in their homes.
We're still at an evacuation wee
going to be changing the Cactus Shadows
high school to a heat relief station.
The Red Cross is still there
assisting with that.
Over some some livestock's goner
to The Cave Creek Rodeo Fairgro.
So we're hoping really that that
we get past these next few hours
and we can give you some sort of
containment numbers and hopeful,
fingers crossed,
lift that evacuation and let
people back into their homes.
And
finally it's my job to ask you,
you know, look,
we know there's construction gog
on near where the fire started.
We know there was welding going.
If it's determined that a welder
or a construction accident
caused this, what happens?
Yeah, we'll leave that up
to somebody other than me.
I know we're part of the investigation.
We I really want to just focus
right now on the men and women
that are still on the front lin.
You know, they they talked abou,
they've got a containment
line all the way around it,
the winds right now,
if something flares up and it js
that containment line and we're
off and running again, right. S.
I just really want to focus on e
people that have been displaced.
My heart goes out to them.
We're doing everything we can to
get them back as soon as they c.
I can't imagine sitting at home
because some of them left their
pets and stuff inside those hou,
which sometimes staying in place
in the home is,
is a lot better than getting ou.
So yeah,
so a lot of men and women still working.
And yeah,
it was just my heart goes out to
those people and we're working d
to get them back into their hom.
Dave, hats off to you guys for a
tremendous response on this as well as.
Rio Verde Fire and all of the or
agencies both on the ground and the in the
air that are fighting this 2500 acres.
But hopefully we will have a good outcome and
have some containment by later on tonight.
Captain Dave Folio with Scottsde
fire with us and now we also hae
assets on the ground as well.
We have Rachel Cole,
she is looking at the conditions
and the people who've been dispd
and also Team Twelve's Chase go
lightly who's been talking to te
who've been impacted by this fi.
Let's start with Chase.
Mark, that's right.
Right now where we are at,
we're at 144th St. and REO Verde, Dr.
at one of the properties that got dangerously
close to the fire coming on the property.
You can actually see that right behind me.
This entire area, this is facing South,
this entire area right here, charred black.
From the flames, you can see jut
how close they got to the prope.
But one of the key reasons why it did not is
if you notice all these rocks right here,
they have a pink color to them.
That's because one of the air
tankers coming by dropped a mase
slurry along this line right he.
We were able to see some videos
of that happening.
That's why all this is pink,
this entire area,
even some parts of the house right here.
Have little splotches of pink of them
from that story that came in and everyone
in this area incredibly thankful that
firefighters and all their workr
trying to protect these homes right here.
We spoke to one man who again
lives in this area.
He said that he was a part of tt
evacuation zone yesterday when
he didn't know if he would have
a home to come back to now.
Today he was able to return just
to see the aftermath of that fi.
And when we spoke with him,
all he could say was kind things
about the firefighters and their
hard work protecting these home.
Oh, the firemen were fabulous.
I I couldn't believe
how quickly they protected all e
homes in this area with the fire
retardant and the firefighters
on the ground. Incredible.
Now as we mentioned, this area s
still part of the evacuation zo.
Firefighters know that we're he.
We've seen some of them in the ,
just checking out places out.
They did tell us earlier today that this
area right here should be safe given.
Just how much is burned already?
They said. Of course it can't burn again.
There are a couple spots where e
are seeing some green vegetatio,
but they said this area should be safe now.
Again, none of those evacuation
orders have been lifted.
About 1200 people were evacuated
from their homes.
However, when we were just
driving around in some of the
neighborhoods along Rio Verde D.
we noticed a lot of people did
return home just because of the
positive news that they heard
this morning about firefighters
really gaining control of the f.
So we did see a lot of people
coming back with that said.
They're still on standby.
They still have their bags reado
go in case for some reason thise
sparks back up and they have tot
going as to when those evacuations mark,
when be will be lifted.
We're still waiting for an update on that.
Back to you.
All right, Team Twelve's Chase, go lightly.
One of the most heartbreaking is
yesterday when we first came one
air with this diamond fire cove,
was the images of horses
running through a pasture.
And you could tell they
were they were frightened,
they they didn't know what was happening.
A slurry bomber had just dropped
a load of slurry.
So between the noise of that,
probably the smell of the smoke,
you have to feel for the homeowners who have.
There's a lot of horse property out there,
so the people and their pets and the animals.
And Rachel Cole has been coverig
that aspect of this fire,
the innocence, the not only the people,
but the animals.
She joins us now with more detas
on how animal owners are handlig
the changing conditions of thise
and keeping their fingers cross.
Rachel.
Yeah, good afternoon to you, Ma.
You know, you think about these
big sprawling branch properties,
the acres and acres full of livestock,
horses in particular, and how sd
they were during yesterday's activity.
And that activity,
300 firefighters working both from the ground
and arially to get this fire contained,
how scared they were.
But the best thing that you can really do
is remain calm, things much more calm.
At this hour, as you can see,
but of course a different situan
yesterday with the fire flaring,
the wildfires that could
spark all season long.
So it's good to be prepared
not just for yourselves.
Chase mentioned people still
have their go bags ready.
That's great, but don't forget the go
bags that you need for your ani,
that, let's face it,
for people out here with these properties,
that is their family too.
And they're not leaving
without those animals.
So have their bags and their ne.
Ready to go?
We're talking food, medications,
tools to transport them
safely and comfortably.
All good things to keep in mind,
and most importantly,
that we're hearing from
horse trainers remain calm.
We saw the entire Rio Verde
Foothills community and surroung
areas jump into action last nig,
willing to help house and mobile
the animals potentially being
threatened by the diamond fire.
Outside of having the truck
gassed up and the trailer readyo
go with full tires, what else dd
you be considering? When it coms
to the livestock,
the biggest thing is space around them.
Make sure your environment is c.
Make sure that there's not tons
of brush around them where it
can get right up to your animal.
Like somebody spends here.
You see they're really nice and open.
There's not a bunch of trees and
shrubbery and trees are fine,
but more that like up N pine nes
out here, the brush, the grasse.
You try to keep as much of that
clear so that way if you can you
can move through your property,
you can move your animals.
Make sure your medications
are packed if needed.
The nice thing is like we had te
rodeo ground set up and so they
had stalls and feed and bedding
so and you don't really have to
worry about too much of that.
There's plenty of friends and
family that will help you out.
So we're continuing to hear from
people regarding the rodeo grou.
We did talk to somebody over th,
volunteer with Arizona Foothills 911.
They said the stalls are ready
and they do have large animal
veterinarians on site in case yu
need to bring your livestock ov.
We do have those resources posted for
you on 12 news.com and we'll have more
details for you tonight on 12 News at Six.
We're live in North Scottsdale.
Rachel Cole,
back to you.
All right, Rachel, thanks so much again.
Hopefully, this fire will be abo
lay down within the next few ho.
We are in the most important ped
of the day, the period between 0
PM and 6:00 PM when the winds kk
up the hottest time of the day.
This is when the firefighters ae
really dealing with the elements
out there and it's so crucial
that they can get a handle and t
a perimeter laid down on this.
Hopefully we'll have updated containment
numbers a little bit later on, .
We'll toss it back to you.