Sedona and Verde Valley residents have watched with concern the Eaton and Palisades wildfires in the Los Angeles area of California, which have burned thousands of homes to the ground and displaced tens of thousands of people. While celebrities, millionaire business owners and prominent figures have captured many of their narratives on social media, the wildfires also burned thousands of homes belonging to middleclass and working-class Californians, especially due to the Eaton Fire.

The region will take years, if not decades, to rebuild following what is being described as one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history if measured solely in economic terms.

Sedona and Verde Valley residents have also wondered if such a fire can happen here, or if our region has any sort of evacuation plan should there be a wildfire near residential areas.

The California wildfires are unique to the Los Angeles environment, which is a Mediterranean climate that experiences hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters, unlike the high desert interior chaparral and semi-arid ponderosa pine forests of Northern Arizona. Additionally, that part of California experiences high-velocity Santa Ana katabatic winds, which bring hot air down the slopes of the surrounding mountains from the inland California desert to the Pacific Ocean through the Los Angeles area.

As a landlocked, high desert region, we experience no such winds, and most of our winds flow north from the Verde Valley or along the Mogollon Rim to the Coconino Plateau, not the other way around. The trees, brush and shrubs that populate our forests evolved mechanisms to cope with and survive fire long before the first nomadic humans migrated into what is now Arizona around 12,000 years ago or possibly even much earlier.

There are remarkably few fires in the windy areas of the Coconino Plateau. The Verde Valley is also surrounded by the Coconino and Prescott National Forests, whose forest managers make considerable efforts to thin our forests using mechanical means and controlled burns. The wildfire smoke residents complain about is fire managers doing the work to reduce fire risk.

The city of Sedona created an evacuation plan in 2024, which you can read at sedonaaz.gov/evacuation, the creation of which we covered extensively. The city also mailed residents notices to “know your zone,” but the meetings themselves were very poorly attended.

Should the city hold subsequent meetings in the months to come, those meetings will likely be better attended.

Likewise, Arizona counties, including Yavapai County and Coconino County, established their “Ready, Set, Go” evacuation program to warn residence of natural disasters such as wildfires and flooding. Residents who have lived here more than a few years likely remember their implementation during the Oak Creek floods of 2023 and the 78,750-acre Rafael Fire of 2021.

They encourage residents to always be ready by maintaining a “go bag,” get prepped to leave if in the “set” area and “go” should the notice come to evacuate. Even so, there is no Arizona law mandating evacuations, and in many cases, be it fire or flooding, residents have opted to stay in their homes at their own risk.

Fires along the urban-wildland interface in Arizona do occur, but are rare, and generally are man-made accidental fires that start within the community and burn outward, rather than the other way around, such as the La Barranca Fire of 2006, which started when workers were welding a fence and burned eight structures, including two homes, and 836 acres.

Arizona’s municipal and regional fire districts are uniquely trained to battle wildfires in their communities and respond swiftly should a wildfire strike. Sedona Fire District crews were the first on scene for the Brins Fire in 2006 and the Slide Fire in 2014, supplemented by thousands of crews from around the country.

There are dozens more fires that SFD and other fire agencies extinguished, squelched or contained before they grew out of control.

There are anywhere between two and 25 wildfires burning in Arizona at any one time, some of which we report on when fires or smoke affects us, but the key is to be aware of our surroundings and government plans, maintain defensible space around your home and work with local fire officials to stay safe.