Low humidity and high wind gusts are a concern this weekend for firefighters trying to contain the Cody Fire as it continues to burn near Oracle, about 40 miles north of Tucson.
The fire, which continues to be at 5% containment, had covered approximately 1,220 acres since it broke out Wednesday afternoon, said Stefan La-Sky, a spokesman for Southwest Area Incident Management Team 4, which on Thursday assumed command of the blaze.
La-Sky said 1,100 people living in the Oracle area have been evacuated, while 1,300 are “set” to go.
And when they say, “set” to go, they mean it, La-Sky said, because fires are unpredictable and so is the weather.
The cause of the blaze has not been determined.
La-Sky said the group’s fire behavior analyst said the Cody Fire is dealing with weather more typical of July. The humidity at night has been sitting below 20%, and high wind gusts are patterns coming three weeks ahead of schedule, causing unpredictability.
With helicopters on the ready, air tankers if needed, and 400 personnel are on scene, La-Sky said.
Southwest Area Incident Management Team 4 assumed command of the Cody Fire Thursday. Some 400 firefighters and personnel are assigned to the blaze burning near Oracle.
Catalina Park, as well as recreational areas surrounding the Cody Fire, have been closed. This includes a section of the Arizona Trail.
As Oracle’s Cody Fire continues to burn — fueled by grass, brush and dry timber— so does the heat of the fire’s wrath.
The blaze has incinerated homes, pictures, memories and belongings of its victims, like Oracle resident and business owner Chloe Jeffrey and her family, fiancée Andrew Ahlbrecht and the couple’s daughter, Juniper, a toddler.
“Everything is gone,” Jeffrey said, describing their once-happy home. “It looked like the surface of the moon: dusty, gray, calm.”
It started with a phone call from her father, whose property she lives on with her family. He saw smoke a couple blocks up the road and went to check things out.
“He calls me (at work) and he’s screaming for me to get home NOW. There’s smoke in the front yard. We can’t grab anything. Just the dog,” Jeffrey said.
Ground and aerial firefighting efforts continued throughout the day Friday as the Cody Fire grew to about 1,200 acres.
Driving home, flames 20 feet tall crossed the road. They found a small path, plowed by construction workers, that took them straight home, where 40-foot flames had now taken over the house. They grabbed their dog and went to the only place they knew was safe- the place they had just come from. Jeffrey and her fiancé’s business, Simply Sandwiches, was still standing. They parked in the lot and watched the flames take over the town.
The next day, as she drove around, she saw “skeleton houses.” Campers were melted to the ground, but some houses were completely untouched.
“It was crazy,” Jeffrey said.
Her daughter’s first bedroom, with a small crib in the corner, is covered in soot. The tiny home they moved from Minnesota last year to build, but only spent three months living in (and had yet to insure) was unrecognizable. Their boat, trailer, ATVs, dirt bikes, all up in flames.
“I can’t believe it,” she said Friday, tired and still in shock.
Jeffrey was not speaking from a nearby hotel or from a friend’s home. She was a their business, where she said they plan to keep serving up food until they can afford an RV to live in while they rebuild their home.
“I don’t really feel like work right now. I’m sad, and out of it, and in zombie-mode,” she said. “But if I’m going to be here, we might as well be open. This is our only income.”
Jeffrey’s mother started a GoFundMe page to raise money to help her daughter and her family get back on their feet.
The Cody Fire was the second wildfire in the Oracle area in about a 24-hour period.
An evacuation site was opened at the Mammoth Community Center, 101 W. Fifth St. And the Red Cross set up a shelter in Oro Valley at Canyon del Oro High School, 25 W. Calle Concordia.
