Full news conference on Diamond Fire | June 27

I'm Captain Dave folio f-o-l-i-o with the city of Scottsdale Fire Department and I'm Tiffany Davila d-a-v-i-l-a and I'm the public affairs officer for the Arizona Department of Forestry and fire management at 16 34 we received a call from 13031 East La juanada Road so that's spelled l-a-j-u-n-t-a Road the winds were blowing from 4 to 10 miles an hour at the time and it was reported uh

just fire out in the brush area when our first unit arrived we had approximately five to ten acres that were involved the assignment was quickly upgraded and to a first alarm and we immediately we have three brush trucks out roaming in the area on patrol we've had them up for several weeks now they were able to uh what we call bump and run several of the

structures that were immediately at threat and we were able to reach out to State Department of Forestry and tono also had seen the column of smoke so they started an engine this way and we started air support so got got requested air support so uh we back started evacuation initially from 128th Street jomax to to Rio Verde drive all the way over to we're now to

about 166 160th Street we currently uh think we've got about 1145 people evacue weighted rocket we're asking people to continue to stay out of the area this is an active scene still and as you saw we uh we I know of four to five air units that were dropping retardant on the fire and coming out of Gateway and several other places uh some I had gotten

a few questions of that turn around shoot they'll probably answer more of that for you but uh Scottsdale Fire we struck a first alarm so we had Peoria we had Chandler we had Phoenix fire we had Scottsdale Fire Daisy Mountain showed up uh Rio Verde because they're just to the east of us this mod this fire burned started in Scottsdale and it's since moved into more

of a county state land further to the east so we've Scottsdale Fire sat in a command post and now we've turned that command post over to the Department of Forestry yep thank you so right now the most current information I have is the fire is approximately 2500 Acres it was wind driven obviously it's burning quickly or was burning quickly this afternoon through fine fuels the grass

brush just your typical desert vegetation it was very active on the Eastern flank that's where you were seeing most of that black smoke earlier today we have about 250 Personnel assigned to this fire that includes a Strike Team or a task force of engines so we've got a task force of eight engines additional engines from local Cooperators I'd say about 25 to 30 engines we have

multiple hand Crews from the state and our federal partners and then of course our local Cooperators are assisting as well do not know a Cause the fire is under investigation though we had a report of one structure but we think it was an outhouse we have not been able to get into that area yet and that was reported from Air Attack uh we have no reports

of anybody injured and we're also working on an evacuation center right now which we think we're trying to get a hold of the the Cactus Shadows uh which is off of 60th Street and Carefree Highway 62nd Street and Carefree Highway so we'll get that information out probably uh via Twitter we're also working with uh Rio Verde uh Horse Association I believe for for equine the horse

time because we don't have a damage assessment the fire was just too active it was producing erratic fire behavior and we have not been able to get people in there to see how much damage if any is in that in that area so this is just your typical desert vegetation we're talking about the fine fuel it dries out very quickly once things start to warm up

it's the grass and the brush um you know we're about a month behind so this is the activity that we usually see in May but because we had all of that winter and spring moisture were delayed for our start so now is really the time we could start seeing an uptick in our fire activity I just have a total of 1145 people I'm not sure of

how many structures at this time like I said we haven't been able to get in there I know uh initially with our first alarm we were so when we're talking about the bump and run we train on this and we've actually done a lot of vegetation and uh Hazard uh the 15-foot defensible space 30 foot defensible space inspections out here where we've knocked on the doors

we put the hanger on the door asking them to clear the brush away and uh I know um the bump and run it's basically a hose line with forestry line it's something that we can maneuver quickly we can do the defensible space around the structure we can fight that fire and bump it around and then we load it quickly and move on to the next structure

so that's how we attack this fire initially there's no containment at this time we haven't even stopped for progress of the fire so we won't have any of that information for quite some time I mean it's just one of those things that we have to just wait it out um you know oftentimes people won't see smoke but that doesn't mean it's safe to send people back

into their community so we understand it's a struggle for people to be away from their homes for a longer period of time um but we don't like giving people a time frame because then if we miss that time frame we just have frustration so we're just asking people to be you know just patient with us we're doing everything that we can we have engines out here

working structure protection along the south end the South flank of the fire and protecting the homes kind of North to the north of us so we're just asking for the Public's patients at this time let me ask you about that well you know a lot of the vlots that we were using today and the large air tankers were actually coming out of Gateway so it was

a quick turnaround time for them about 15-20 minutes to load and return we did have some aircraft out of Prescott air tanker bays and Huachuca also so we have the aircraft here available at our ready um but you know it's just it was it happened to be in this area Gateway is not that far so we were really able to utilize a lot of heavy aircraft

and put a lot of retardant on this fire um when when the temperatures start to cool down this fire is going to lay down um so the activity will decrease um cooler temperatures just have have that effect on the fire so the fire may lay down but something to remind folks that live in this area especially if you're in Rio Verde maybe Fountain Hills fire is

going to look larger at night so just something to keep in mind that we have crews out here they will be working throughout the night there's about 200 and 250 Personnel assigned to this fire so just understand that fire does look larger at night not to my knowledge but again you know we have our aircraft our air our Air Attack which is our eyes in the

sky kind of helping us evaluate the situation um from that aerial perspective we haven't reported or haven't had any reports of that yet but again it's still too early to tell you both there's actually there's a lot of older homes back there and a lot of new builds came up a little bit of time how does that impact your guys I would say be patient some

I know we were getting reports of some of those we were just moving into larger Arenas kind of giving them that defensible space so we moved them out of some of the wooden barns areas and we moved into the bigger Arenas be patient we'll as soon as we're you know like I said this is an active scene we have no containment on it yet and just

be patient with us and when we get some information on that we'll send it out via Twitter and uh the sites that they're going to set up and we will be opening this incident on inciweb so we'll kind of get everything into that platform as far as shelter information evacuation information livestock information so we can push everything from that one uh what that one point breaks

out for them first I just want to say that I want to give kudos to Scottsdale Fire Department they are one of our most active fire departments when it comes to firewise we have a lot of communities in this area that are firewise certified so they really hustle throughout the year as does the state to get to bring communities on board and get into that firewise

program so they're actively involved making sure neighborhoods and residents are clearing their brush clearing their vegetation and working to create that defensible space because that defensible space provides that barrier between your home and the potential wildfire towards the music yeah another thing too is I I think some of the guys were reporting that we actually use that we don't take that off-road that ladder truck gives

us a high point so we get it get an advantage on seeing where the fire is going we always put out Lookouts out there we try and work in the black we try and work from the road a good Anchor Point so initially it's good to get that truck that was one of our first trucks actually that was in the area on the scene that responded

so it's good to get that up and get a high point advantage on where the fire was going uh seeing the different fingers of the fire spreading out so that was good for us but we don't use that in any type of wild land or brush fire fighting you know it was within 30 45 minutes to an hour of Scottsdale's first response so um Scott still

got unseen and they probably called the state asking for aircraft because the state and the FEDS are the only ones that can order the aircraft they can ask us and then we'll we'll order it for them so it was a quick response from Scottsdale to get aircraft ordered yeah so it went out at 1634 and at 1649 we requested airscore so for we requested the state

to respond to get the to get those in motion and then by the time we order the aircraft then we have to get everyone ready you know the aircraft has to get ready and then so it's probably about 30 minutes after the first response in the initial call from Scottsdale to the state to get aircraft ready to go and launched hmm anyone else have any other

questions we did speak to still inside the home are you have you guys spoken to anybody who has an animal inside the home is there an effort to do anything about that we're going to tweet something out as soon as we get more information of uh but um like I said there was there was talk on the radio listening as I was coming in that where

some of those horses were being moved into the larger Arenas so they may find them in those large Arenas and as soon as we get information that we can let people back into their homes to check on their horses and stuff we'll get that information out but right now we're asking people just to stay away so in this case it's is actually gone and you can

address the camera yeah um yeah well you just have to wait as long as they're you know a lot of times too we ask people to just stay in their home because that's the best place to be so um they're probably better off in their home than outside right now so and then when we can get more information to let them go back and check their

pets we'll do that and then one of the things we like to stress to people ahead of time is to just understand the Ready set go program ready we're in the state we're in now everybody's ready set is pre-evacuation status under that status you should have a go back pact you should know um what prescriptions you need what might be of important documents to you having

your ID getting your pet ready if your pet has medication needs your food elderly people in your household so it's really important that people be prepared have an Escape Route because we don't want to wait until it's too late and and the triggers pulled on the evacuation