Sawmill Fire (2017)
The Sawmill Fire was a wildfire that burned in the U.S. state of Arizona in April 2017. The fire was caused by the detonation of a target packed with tannerite at a gender reveal party in the Coronado National Forest. The fire burned for 11 days and threatened the historic Empire Ranch, a National Register of Historic Places property, but there were no injuries or fatalities, and no buildings were destroyed. Over 800 personnel from various federal, state, and local agencies and organizations worked to first contain and then extinguish the Sawmill Fire. The fire remained in  the public conscience afterward because of other fires caused by tannerite targets and by gender reveal parties, such as the 2020 El Dorado Fire in California. When the U.S. Forest Service released footage of the fire's inception in November 2018 at the request of a local news agency, the cause of the Sawmill Fire was subject to online mockery. Cause. The fire began at around 11 AM (MDT) on April 23, 2017, in the Coronado National Forest, a state-owned property in south-central Arizona, south of Tucson, Arizona. The cause of the fire was a detonation at a  gender reveal party of a target packed with tannerite, a highly explosive substance, by Dennis Dickey, an off-duty U.S. Border Patrol agent. Dickey fired at the target four times, striking and detonating it with the fourth shot, which immediately set the nearby grass on fire. According to his attorney, Dickey attempted to put out the fire but was unsuccessful because of the speed at which it was spreading. Afterward, Dickey alerted law enforcement and admitted culpability for the fire, and subsequently cooperated with authorities. Fire. At the time the Sawmill Fire began, a fire warning for the area from  the National Weather Service was in effect, as local wind speeds were as high as , and precipitation was abnormally low for the region. These conditions allowed the fire to spread quickly, and by the time elements of the Green Valley Fire Department arrived at 11:11 AM (MDT), the Sawmill Fire had grown to and was spreading to the north and east. Firefighters began to pursue full suppression of the fire, but their efforts were further hindered by the addition of the rough terrain of the Santa Rita Mountains. By April 24, the fire had consumed about , despite the assistance of  five airtankers and three helicopters carrying water. That night, the fire crossed and damaged Arizona State Route 83, which runs south through the Coronado National Forest and had been closed earlier that day, and headed east across the Santa Rita Mountains. As the fire continue to spread, about 100 civilians were evacuated and 100 others east of Route 83 received pre-evacuation notices. The local chapter of the American Red Cross opened two shelters in Sonoita and Tucson on 24–25 April, but they were almost totally unused and were closed on April 29. By April 25, 363 first responders were  fighting the Sawmill Fire, which had grown to because of continued low humidity and high winds that made aerial firefighting impossible. At 6:00 PM on April 25, the Southwest Area Incident Management's Team 5, a Type-II incident management team, assumed command of the personnel battling the Sawmill Fire. Winds subsided the night of April 25–26, allowing the now ~600 firefighters present to halt the southern spread of the fire near Empire Ranch, where flames came as close as to the ranch's historic buildings. The fire's area nonetheless doubled to and conditions were expected to worsen because  of a storm system in northern Arizona. Arizona State Route 89 and Interstate 10 were closed, and a Type-I team replaced the Type-II team on April 27. By 11:00 AM (MDT) April 27, the Sawmill Fire had burned , and efforts to suppress it had by then cost $1,000,000 ($, adjusted for inflation). About 800 firefighters were present and made great progress containing the fire with firebreaks on April 28 and 29, despite aircraft again being grounded by the wind. Route 83 was reopened on April 27 and evacuation orders for civilians to Route 83's west were  lifted; repairs to the road, meanwhile, lasted until early May. Wind as fast as was expected and came, but regardless the spread of the fire was halted and fully contained by April 30, and evacuation orders were lifted. On May 1, 2017, command of the Sawmill Fire response effort was returned to the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management, U.S. Forest Service (USFS), and BLM, and the firefighters were demobilized. Aftermath. The Sawmill Fire burned over 11 days, growing to its greatest extent on April 29, and cost $8,200,000 ($, adjusted for inflation) to suppress. The state-owned  Santa Rita Experimental Range and Wildlife Area and the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area (LCNCA), managed by the Federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM), made up most of the burned area; 28% of the LCNCA, roughly was burned and was closed from April 28 to May 23. Of the total area burned, about a third of it suffered total foliage mortality, concentrated in the west. 412 people were evacuated, but there were no fatalities, serious injuries, or buildings destroyed. Legal action against Dickey. The investigation and prosecution of the Sawmill Fire were turned over to the U.S. Attorney's Office  in August 2017 as, though the fire started on the property of the State of Arizona, Federal property had been burned. On September 20, 2018, Dickey was charged with starting a fire without a permit, a misdemeanor offense, and was summoned to appear at the United States District Court for the District of Arizona on September 29. There, he pled guilty to the charge, saying that the fire was an accident and that April 23, 2017, was "one of the worst days of [his] life". On October 9, 2018, Dickey was sentenced to five years' probation and agreed to pay  the cost of the fire in restitution. This was reduced to $200,000 by a federal court in October 2018. Dickey also agreed to appear in a public service announcement for the USFS regarding the fire. Footage of Dickey shooting the target became public when, in November 2018, the "Arizona Daily Star" acquired it via a Freedom of Information Act request. The video brought the fire back into the public consciousness, resulting in both Dickey and the concept of gender reveal parties being mocked online. The Sawmill Fire was the first wildfire known to be ignited by a gender reveal  party, but was not the last, as it was succeeded in 2020 by the El Dorado Fire in California, which sparked more public outrage. In July 2017, lawmakers in Pima County proposed the ban of the possession, creation, and distribution of explosive targets in response to the Sawmill Fire and other fires caused by exploding targets.