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The Doce Fire burning about eight miles northwest of Prescott is still zero percent contained, but the fire’s not as large as officials estimated Wednesday.
Though estimates reached 7,500 acres Wednesday afternoon, the latest update from the Prescott National Forest, released at 8 a.m. today, says infrared imaging Wednesday night showed the fire at 6,379 acres.
See also:
Doce Fire Near Prescott Has Burned 7,000 Acres
Although several neighborhoods have been evacuated, there haven’t been any structures lost in the fire.
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There are now more than 600 firefighters battling the human-caused blaze, and they’ve pulled out heavy equipment including four helicopters, a bulldozer, and water tankers.
The estimated cost thus far is $1 million, “primarily due to aviation assets in use,” according to the Forest Service.
If you understand firefighter-speak, here’s the plan:
Crews will focus suppression efforts on both the east and west flanks of the fire today, constructing dozer and hand line directly up against or at a safe distance from the fire’s edge. Burnout operations to reinforce the effectiveness of the constructed lines may also occur as conditions allow. Firefighters are assessing structure protection needs in all evacuated subdivisions, constructing indirect fireline and installing sprinklers as needed.
No structures have been lost and no further evacuations ordered. Firefighters remain on alert for hot, dry windy conditions that may affect the fire’s behavior and direction of growth.
The neighborhoods that have been evacuated are Granite Basin Homes, Black Jack, Camp Anytown, Sundown Acres, Cielo Grande, Old Stage Acres, the south half of Mint Creek Wash, and American Ranch.
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Follow Matthew Hendley on Twitter at @MatthewHendley.
