After big-blaze years, Arizona has rare 'typical' wildfire season so far

WASHINGTON - Halfway through the year, Arizona has seen a larger number of smaller fires than last year, allowing crews to react quickly, stay safe and keep firefighting costs within budget, officials said.

They are welcoming what is shaping up to be an average wildfire season, following the tragic Yarnell fire that killed 19 firefighters in 2013 and enormous blazes like the 2011 Wallow Fire that burned more than a half-million acres.

Since January, there had been 833 fires that had burned more than 139,000 acres in the state as of June 27. That compares to 584 fires by mid-June 2013, that involved about 49,000 acres, according to a spokesman with the Southwest Coordination Center, an interagency incident support website.

"We're not seeing the large fires we've seen in past years," said Dolores Garcia, fire mitigation specialist with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). "We're fortunate to have the resources to respond quickly and catch them while they're small, before becoming newsworthy."

Catching fires at earlier stages has also allowed the state to save money on firefighting efforts.

Fire suppression in the state has cost about $19 million so far this year, said Jay Ellington, a spokesman for the Southwest Coordination Center. That compares to $229.8 million in fiscal 2011 and $63.7 million for all of fiscal 2013, according to a U.S. Forest Service breakdown of spending by state. Costs for fiscal 2013 have not yet been released.

The state will return to normal fire potential with monsoon season from July through September, according to a wildfire outlook report by the National Interagency Fire Center.

Garcia said monsoon season could bring an increase in lighting-caused fires: So far, 44 of this year's more than 800 wildfires have been lightning-related, and the rest caused by human activity.