Storm forecasts cloud progress against blaze

Flowers, American flags and mementos adorn the outside fence of Station 7 yesterday in Prescott, Arizona. Nineteen firefighters based out of Station 7 died battling a fast-moving wildfire near Yarnell, Arizona on June 30.Reuters/Prescott, ArizonaFirefighters laboured yesterday to extend their grip on a smouldering but still potentially lethal blaze in Arizona that killed 19 members of an elite “hotshots” crew in the deadliest US wildfire tragedy in eight decades.Strong, erratic winds that earlier had whipped the lightning-sparked fire into a deadly frenzy abated for a second day, helping fire crews make headway in subduing the flames, officials for the firefighting command team told Reuters.By sundown on Tuesday, a force of some 600 firefighters had managed to achieve their first measure of solid enclosure around the fire’s perimeter, estimated at 8%, they said.“We’ve got containment, it’s limited containment, but they feel very good about that,” incident command spokesman Dennis Godfrey said. “There is a sense of confidence.”But he cautioned that plenty of dense, drought-parched scrub oak and chaparral was left unburned on the ground, providing ample fuel for creeping embers and hot spots to reignite.And the likelihood of heavy, late-afternoon thunderstorms remained in the region’s weather forecasts, posing another wild card in firefighting efforts. Powerful wind bursts and lightning unleashed by such storms could quickly set off a renewed firestorm, officials said.Gale-force winds from a thunderstorm cell that moved through the area on Sunday are believed to have caused the blaze, fanning flames that abruptly changed course and overwhelmed a group of firefighters before they could take cover.The deaths of the 19 men, members of a specially trained outfit called the Granite Mountain Hotshots, marked the greatest loss of life from a US wildland blaze since at least 25 men died battling the Griffith Park fire of 1933 in Los Angeles, records show.