Tucson's Bighorn Fire: Blaze in Santa Catalinas now covers nearly 75,000 acres

Smoke rolls over the Sabino Canyon area Wednesday as the Big Horn Fire grows to nearly 75,000 acres. An especially smoky day is expected over portions of Tucson and the community of Oracle.

 Bighorn Fire, Incident Command Team via Facebook

Pockets of the Big Horn Fire were "heating up" Thursday afternoon, but despite a boost to its smoke, there was no increased concern about the wildfire crossing existing fire lines, officials said in an update Thursday afternoon.

The fire sparked by lightning on June 5 had several internal pockets of fire burning Thursday afternoon, a day that was hotter and more windy than earlier in the week.

Tucsonans were likely seeing bigger plumes of smoke throughout the day from smaller fires, like one burning above Catalina State park near a rugged trail called Baby Jesus, said Mike Goicoechea, incident commander for the Northern Rockies Incident Management Team.

Smoke also was expected to be coming from areas where the fire moved into portions of canyons with a lot of fuel to burn, he said.

The area around Sabino was "still quiet" Thursday afternoon, he said.

The wildfire has grown to nearly 82,000 acres and was 33 percent contained Thursday morning. More than 1,000 people are fighting the fire.

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