New Wild Fire Along Highway 83

We have just returned from Santa Rita Abbey this afternoon along Highway 83. A new fire, The Mulberry fire, was burning on the east side of the Empire Mountains. This is north of the Sawmill fire burn area.

I took these photos about 03:30 pm MST this afternoon - views are looking north-northeast from the side of Highway 83. The burn area below is from the Sawmill fire. The channel 2 image at bottom shows the hotly burning portion of the fire as bright white pixels. Based on the smoke plume behavior we observed, the fire was expanding very rapidly. Winds in the area of the fire have been gusting 40 to 50 mph this afternoon.