Arizona's wildfire season burns fewest acres since 2001

Less than 64,000 acres were consumed by wildfires through mid-September, according to the Southwest Coordination Center. That compares to yearlong totals of more than 152,000 acres burned last year and more than 762,000 burned in 2005.

In 2001, more than 30,000 acres were burned.

“Arizonans really should be congratulated,” state forester Kirk Rowdabaugh said.

He said the number of fires started by humans dropped nearly 30 percent from last year, to 1,055.

So far this year, wildfires have charred 8.2 million acres nationwide, a number that is approaching last year’s record of 9.9 million acres.

Seven firefighters have died battling those blazes, which also destroyed more than 400 homes, a dramatic increase from last year.

Fire managers say their job has become more hazardous because of an onslaught of newly built houses and vacation cabins — some inside national forests. An estimated 8.6 million houses have been built within 30 miles of a national forest since 1982.

“There’s the frustration of knowing these people aren’t taking care of their home, and why do we have to do it?” said John Watson, a Fairfield, Mont. firefighting contractor. “I’ve asked them, ’Do you understand the danger?’ There isn’t a whole lot that needs to be done to mitigate the threat, but they won’t do it.

“They say, ’I’d rather have my cabin burn down with the trees than have you cut some down.”’ Fire managers say they’re more likely to leave houses whose owners haven’t taken precautions, such as trimming back trees and weeds or installing metal roofs on their homes.

Until recently, firefighters “saluted and went out and did it,” said Don Smurthwaite, a U.S. Bureau of Land Management spokesman and former firefighter.

Now, he said, “we will not ask a fire crew in a dangerous fire to defend a structure that has not taken precautionary steps. That’s definitely a change."