SR 87 reopens, ‘SET’ status lifted as Sand Stone Fire continues to burn near Fountain Hills
TONTO NATIONAL FOREST, AZ (AZFamily) — The southbound lanes of State Route 87 are open again after being closed since Sunday because of the Sand Stone Fire. The massive brush fire is currently burning thousands of acres northeast of Fountain Hills in the Tonto National Forest.
As of Monday evening, the Sand Stone Fire had burned 27,390 acres with 82% containment. It was caused by lightning and is rapidly growing.
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office put residents in Sunflower in the “SET” position, meaning they should prepare to evacuate, but that order was lifted and modified to “READY” status on Friday morning. Sunflower residents should have a plan and an emergency go kit and listen to any emergency alerts.
The fire spread north and east, and smoke is highly visible from nearby outlying communities.
“There’s no holding features out there for us,” Forest Service spokesperson Brad Widhalm said. “It’s all continuous grass just like you see over here. There are no holding features. It’ll probably be off to the races.”
Making the job more difficult, there has been no precipitation in the forecast after Monday and wind gusts up to 10-15 mph are expected. Firefighters are trying to hold the fire west of SR 87.
“Hopefully the winds die down in the next couple of days,” Widhalm said. “We’re going to have a drying trend, so the drying trend will be here the whole week. We wont see any more precipitation probably, so that’s going to be a problem for us as well.”
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