SPRINGERVILLE — With two wildfires burning on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, Forest Service officials have implemented fire restrictions.
The Stage 1 restrictions prohibit igniting, building, maintaining or using a fire, including charcoal and briquettes, outside a fire structure that is provided by the Forest Service within a designated area; and smoking, except within an enclosed vehicle or building, a developed recreation site, or while stopped in an area at least three- feet in diameter that is barren or cleared of all flammable material.
Use of a stove or grill fueled by pressurized liquid petroleum or pressurized liquid petroleum gas is exempted. Also recreational target shooting and legal hunting activities are permitted. Fireworks and explosives, including exploding targets, are never allowed on national forests.
Currently burning is the 18,903-acre Cow Canyon fire in the Blue Primitive Area, and the 86-acre Jake Springs fire, southeast of Carnero Lake. The Cow Canyon fire is 12 percent contained while the Jake Springs first is at 40-perent containment.
