By admin 
SEDONA, AZ (AZFamily) — The Pocket Fire burning north of Sedona nearly quadrupled in size over the weekend.
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As of Monday morning, it had scorched more than 11,100 acres west of Oak Creek Canyon and remains 0% contained.
Fire officials say strong winds have carried embers up to a mile ahead of the flames, so crews are conducting burnouts to remove fuel in targeted areas.
Burnouts are a tactic that firefighters say can slow the fire’s spread more quickly by using fuel and will cause less damage to the landscape compared to dozers and hand tools.
People living in Kachina Village, Forest Highlands, Pine Del 99, and Oak Creek Canyon are under SET evacuation status, and 89A is closed to everyone but those residents.
The weekend red flag warnings not only helped fuel the flames but also pushed the smoke to other areas across the high country.
A high pollution advisory is in effect for the Flagstaff area Monday and Tuesday.
Almost a thousand people are fighting to contain the fire, but because of the dry vegetation, wind and steep terrain, it’s been an uphill battle.
“It’s challenging,” said Dick Fleishman, who’s with the U.S. Forest Service incident command team. “It’s probably one of the most challenging fires that almost every fire manager on this fire said this one is complex, one of the most complex.”
Kachina Village residents pack belongings
Residents of Kachina Village spent Sunday packing valuables and preparing for a possible evacuation.
Resident Lexi Wahl focused on sentimental items — baby clothes, her grandpa’s camera, boxes of family photos — as she loaded belongings into a friend’s pickup truck.
“Monetary value, in that sense, doesn’t mean too much to me, but you leave one thing there and you’ll never see it again,” Wahl said.
Another resident, Shira Itogawa, described a methodical strategy for packing.
“Get the essentials, if you have time get a little bit more than the essentials, if you have time get a little bit more than that,” Itogawa said.
Itogawa said she is familiar with wildfire loss. Her home burned in the 2003 Cedar Fire in San Diego. She said the current situation brought back memories.
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“It’s kind of flashing back on memories, I know the orange sky pretty well,” Itogawa said.
Despite the threat, Itogawa said she was taking a cautious but measured approach.
“I don’t expect us to actually burn, but I’d rather have stuff out and not burn than have all of it lost again,” she said.
Coconino County Officials ask residents to sign up for the county’s emergency notification system to receive the most up-to-date information on evacuation orders. Click here for more information.
Sedona sees dip in business
Even though they’re far from Flagstaff, residents in Sedona told Arizona’s Family that they’ve seen a drop in visitors because of the fire.
Viola’s Flower Garden, which sits on 89A, gets most of its business from people traveling on the road, manager Caitlin Ewart told Arizona’s Family.
Though they’ve remained open, business has been impacted since the fire started, as the road closure is preventing customers from driving up 89A, Ewart said.
Ewart, who said it rained ash from the fire in Sedona, worries about the smoke hurting their plants.
“The smoke does shade out some of the plants, so they’re not getting as much sunshine,” she explained. “It’s just the air quality is not good for the plants as well.”
Fleishman said this weekend will be a challenge, but believes it could improve next week.
“The reason why we’re not calling containment right now is because of this wind,” he said Saturday. “If we can get through these three days, you’ll probably start seeing some containment on this fire.”
Officials do not know the cause of the Pocket Fire, which started on June 19.
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