Wildfire officials provided an optimistic assessment of their efforts battling the huge Bighorn Fire north of Tucson in a briefing Wednesday morning.
The most active portion of the fire, a southeast section of the blaze near Redington Road, has had "fingers" of fire overrun boundaries set up around the road, but crews got around them Tuesday to stop their push further east.
"It's all contained and looking very good this morning," Mike Goicoechea, an incident commander with the Northern Rockies Incident Management Team, said about the Redington flank if the fire during the briefing.
The Bighorn Fire has grown to 118,370 acres — about 185 square miles — and is 54 percent contained. On Wednesday, 904 people were assigned to fight the fire started by lightning June 5.
The National Weather Service issued a flash flood watch for the Bighorn Fire burn scar for Thursday. While the moisture is welcome, to help put out the fire, wildfires damage the landscape in ways that can increase flood risk near burned area.
The western edge of the wildfire has remained quiet, despite a hot spot high on a ridge that can be seen along portions of Oracle Road. The areas around Summerhaven, Sabino Canyon and the lower Catalina Foothills have stayed calm for the past several days despite gusty winds, Goicoechea said. No change for fire activity is expected in those areas.
Today marked the end of regular briefings about the fire. Instead, officials will only have them if there is a significant development related to the wildfire.
