The Bighorn Fire consumed much of the Santa Catalina mountain range after an innocuous lightning strike late on June 5, 2020. It became a daily spectacle – visible from the Tucson area – as it methodically marched from West to East, finally enveloping burned and unburned Ponderosa pines around Summerhaven. It backed into the foothills on all sides of the range, threatening grasslands, ranch land, Catalina State Park and hundreds of homes. It was indefensible and inaccessible as it burned the rugged Pusch Ridge Wilderness Area. So it became an air war, a choreographed ballet of jet air tankers and helicopters dropping hundreds of thousands of gallons of water and fire retardant to slow or redirect the fire's progress. When it finally stalled, the fire had burned 119,978 acres. It was declared 100-percent contained on July 23.

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