Fire Management

 The fire program is guided by the concept of appropriate suppression response; and seeks to suppress wildfires at a minimum cost consistent with land and resource management objectives and fire management direction.

Fire Season

The height of fire season on the Coronado National Forest occurs in late spring and early summer. Throughout the spring, increasing temperatures and negligible precipitation create extremely dry conditions across the Southwest. Prior to the onset of the summer rainy season, around late June and early July, weak storm cells bring lightning but little rain. During this period, relatively few lightning fires occur, but those that do start often become large.

As circulation patterns strengthen during July, storm cells bring more moisture and produce rain that reaches the ground, thereby reducing fire danger and activity. July fire statistics for the Coronado National Forest show a high frequency of lighting-ignited fires but less area burned compared to June, when drier conditions exist.

Fire Causes

An average of 150 fires occur each year on the Coronado National Forest, burning a total of 9000 acres. Sixty-nine percent of all these fires are lightning-caused, which burns 74% of the total acreage consumed by fire.

Forest Fire Lookouts

The Forest Fire Lookouts have a rich tradition within the U.S. Forest Service. Many of these Fire Lookouts are protected by historic landmark status. Learn more...

Tucson Dispatch Center

The Tucson Dispatch Center (TDC) coordinates, supports, and assists in dispatching for the Coronado National Forest and all cooperators within Southeastern Arizona. A primary function of the TDC is to provide initial attack dispatching for Forest Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service fires.

Additionally, they support other cooperators both within and outside the Southeastern Arizona area in non-fire management activities such as search and rescue, medical emergencies and law enforcement activities

Fire Management Resources

The Coronado National Forest Fire Management Staff is responsible for protecting 1,780,000 acres in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico. Fire suppression staffing on the Forest consists of the following resources:

Fire Engines

The Coronado National Forest has a total of 9 fire engines positioned through the forest for immediate response during fire season. This includes two Type 3 Engines and seven Type 6 Engines. (A Type 3 engines carries five crew members and five hundred gallons of water. A type 6 Engine carries 300 gallons and three crew members.

Engine -11 (Type 6) - Douglas Ranger District
Engine - 21 (Type 6) - Nogales Ranger District
Engine - 33 (Type 6) - Sierra Vista Ranger District
Engine -34 (Type 6) - Sierra Vista Ranger District
Engine -35 (Type 3) - Sierra Vista Ranger District
Engine -41 (Type 6) - Safford Ranger District
Engine -42 (Type 6) - Safford Ranger District
Engine -51 (Type 3) - Santa Catalina Ranger District
Engine -52 (Type 6) - Santa Catalina Ranger District

Initial Attack Hand Crews

Crew 51 - Santa Catalina RD
Crew 21 - Nogales RD
Crew 11 - Douglas RD

Helicopters

Helicopter 318 stationed at Bisbee-Douglas International Airport from April-June with a 6 member Rappel crew.
Helicopter 320 stationed at Tucson Helibase from April - July with a 6 member Rappel crew.

Prescribed Burning

Prescribed fire is defined as any fire ignited by management actions to meet specific objectives.

The Coronado National Forest uses prescribed fire to support ecological and socio-economic sustainability, and to protect, maintain, and enhance resources. The treatment objective can be hazard reduction or other resource benefit requiring vegetative fuel manipulation.

The timing, location, and decision to ignite a prescribed fire are within the agency’s control.

Management ignitions are divided into two distinct actions:

1. Management ignitions in Wilderness
2. Management ignitions outside Wilderness

Two types of fire may be approved for use within Wilderness:

1. Fires ignited by lightning and allowed to burn under prescribed conditions
2. Fires ignited by qualified Forest Service officers

Forest Service managers may ignite a prescribed fire in Wilderness to reduce unnatural buildups of vegetative fuels only if necessary to meet at least one of the Wilderness fire management objectives, and only if all of the following conditions are met:

• The use of prescribed fire or other fuel treatment measures outside of Wilderness is not sufficient to achieve fire management objectives within Wilderness.
• A team of resource specialists has evaluated and recommended the proposed use of prescribed fire.
• The interested public has been involved appropriately in the decision.
• Lightning-caused fires cannot be allowed to burn because they will pose serious threats to life or property within Wilderness, or to life, property, or natural resources outside of Wilderness.