The Eastern Arizona Incident Management team led by John Philbin will be taking command of the Rock Fire Sunday morning June 23rd. There are 215 personnel working on the fire at this time with air support and ground crews. The latest information from the fire on the Fort Apache Reservation has indicated that the actual size of the fire is closer to 750 acres in size. Both ground crews and air support will be aggressively attacking the fire again tomorrow. Winds are expected to be up again tomorrow with a chance of 5 to 10 mph higher winds than we saw today and humidity is expected to be around 8% again.

Tonight smoke will most likely settle into the low lying areas and may cause some visibility issues, please use caution if driving in the area. Also please be on the lookout for crews through out the area.

As always we remind our visitors and residents to use extreme caution this time of year with anything that could potentially ignite even a small spark. Do not toss cigarettes carelessly out of windows, check spark arrestors on any equipment and campfires are prohibited! Even a small spark could start a major fire!

Check back tomorrow for additional updates as they become available.

The Eastern Arizona Type 2 Incident Management Team assumed command of the Rock Creek fire burning along the East Fork/Rock Creek Drainage east of the Community of East Fork. The fire has grown to approximately 1,500 acres.

More details on the Rock Creek Fire –

Confier fire located on Fort Apache Agency. Current resources: 2 air attacks, 1 camp crew, 5 engines, 1 lead plane, 4 single

engine air tankers (1 ASFD and 3 federal), 6 type 1 crews (Geronimo IHC, Ironwood IHC, Jackson IHC, Mt.

Taylor IHC, Payson IHC, and Zuni IHC), and 1 type 1 helicopter. Philbin’s Type 2 Incident Management Team

inbriefed at 0600 this morning.

Statewide Weather Brief: Red Flag Warning in effect from 11 am to 6 pm this evening from strong winds and low relative humidities for Apache County. There is an upper level low over the region which will cause Arizona to see sustained winds of 15-20 mph throughout the weekend. Dry conditions will prevail into next week with higher temperatures.