![\"River](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/92v0r6b58jmutsi0.jpg\")
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BUCKEYE, Ariz.<\/strong> – Crews are still working to contain the Hazen Fire, which began on May 2 in the Buckeye area, and was fueled by heavy river bottom vegetation.<\/p>\n Latest Figures:<\/p>\n According to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), the Hazen Fire has burned 558 acres of land, with 0% containment. 54 personnel have been assigned to the fire, and 90 homes are currently threatened.,<\/p>\n The backstory:<\/p>\n The blaze started around 2:30 p.m. on May 2. Hundreds of acres burned in a fast-moving brush fire as crews from across the West Valley were forced to hold the line, unable to directly access the flames.<\/p>\n “It’s burning some really heavy fuels right now on the river bottom. But your creosote trees. That’s why you’re seeing the large amount of smoke and fire behavior,” said Buckeye Fire Dept. Battalion Chief Scott Balak.<\/p>\n Highway 85 was shut down in both directions for hours as the fire threatened the area. Some residents were left without power for a time after officials say the fire damaged power lines. The highway’s northbound lanes reopened on Saturday night.<\/p>\n Balak says there was a crash on Highway 85 that caused injuries because of people not paying attention and focusing on the fire while driving. He says if you can, avoid the area as crews continue to work.<\/p>\n Local perspective:<\/p>\n “I got calls from, like, 20 people all at once, and they’re like, there’s a fire right next to where you’re staying at,” said Buckeye resident Noah Hill.<\/p>\n Hill was on his way home after work when he was told about Saturday\u2019s fire in Buckeye.<\/p>\n “I was thinking about my dogs the entire time,” Hill said.<\/p>\n Hill lives in an RV near the equestrian center east of where the fire started and says he was told to evacuate\u2014but westward winds changed those plans.<\/p>\n “Whenever I pulled up here, there’s horse trailers with 10 plus horses leaving. Leaving the premises. I noticed that the winds were moving south-southwest. So I figured it’s going to be safe,” Hill said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Map<\/strong><\/a> of the area<\/strong><\/p>\n The Source:<\/b> Buckeye and Goodyear fire departments; interview with Buckeye resident Noah Hill<\/p>\n Buckeye<\/a>News<\/a>Wildfires<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BUCKEYE, Ariz. – Crews are still working to contain the Hazen Fire, which began on May 2 in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":771234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,10439,1588,50,1589,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,313,5609],"class_list":["post-771233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix","tag-america","tag-arizona","tag-az","tag-buckeye","tag-maricopa-county","tag-news","tag-phoenix","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-weather","tag-wildfires"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116512898546561211","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/771234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}