Monsoon season delayed; Sonoita needs volunteer firefighters

Southern Arizona wine country got 1.29 inches of rain in June, which was nearly double the historical average of .63 inch.

But it isn’t enough to prevent the Sonoita/Elgin region from being one big tinderbox waiting for that one big lightning strike to spark a blaze.

And after a target shooter ignited last year’s Sawmill Fire in late April, folks in Sonoita’s wine country aren’t taking any chances. They are clearing the brush from their vineyards and creating fire lines to keep any blaze from swallowing up their vineyards.

“Last year was terrifying,” said Shannon Zouzoulas, who owns Arizona Hops & Vines with her sister, Megan Haller. “Nothing makes us more nervous than fire season.”

The Sawmill gobbled up 40,000 acres and came too close for comfort to the vineyards dotting Sonoita and Elgin.

“We could have another Sawmill Fire this afternoon; our conditions are dry,” said Sonoita Elgin Fire District Chief Joseph DeWolf. “The tall grass fuels are really dry. ... Until we get a lot of monsoon rain and the grass turns green, we are under threat.”

Which is why the fire district is looking for volunteers to help fill out its 24-7 roster. The department is the state’s largest “combination” fire department, comprised of a baker’s dozen of paid personnel and 54 volunteers. The volunteers often squeeze in short shifts between full-time paid jobs, which means the department has to have a big roster of volunteers to fulfill its round-the-clock firefighting mandate.

“We can’t afford to pay all of our people and we can’t afford to run without volunteers,” DeWolf said, describing the volunteer positions as on-the-job training for would-be firefighters. Volunteers can work toward certifications that could help them land full-time jobs with fire agencies throughout the state.

Most of DeWolf’s volunteers are from Tucson, he said.

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Since late spring, there have been a few fairly insignificant brush and wildlands fires that have caused minimal damage. But DeWolf said the fire season has just begun.

The monsoon season could make its debut this weekend, as the chance for rain in Elgin/Sonoita slowly climbs daily from 7 percent on Wednesday, July 4, to 40 percent by Sunday, July 8, said National Weather Service meteorologist Rob Howlett.

“Each thunderstorm has the possibility of generating heavy rainfall,” said Howlett’s colleague Gary Zell, who added that the chance of heavy rain is part of the nature of thunderstorms.

But forecasts and storm models are no guarantee, he said. So Arizona Hops & Vines and their neighbors along Highways 82 and 83 in Sonoita/Elgin are acting. They have already cleared paths of the free-flowing brittle grasslands that grow with abandon throughout the hilly, wind-swept area.

Zouzoulas said she mowed the grass around her 10-acre vineyard at 3450 Highway 82 to create a buffer, “but there is still fuel all around us.”

Kief Manning created 15- to 25-foot fire lines surrounding both of his Kief-Joshua Vineyards — 20 acres at the vineyard at 370 Elgin Road and another 40 acres in Willcox. He is hoping the monsoon season, which officially started June 15 will actually materialize and provide some much needed rain.

“So far we’ve been lucky; we haven’t had any of the lightning storms that caused the issues last year,” said Manning. “We’re hoping for some green grass pretty soon.”