Elgin residents were on edge May 2 as a wind-driven wildfire, totaling 1,600 acres, threatened to burn down the village of Elgin. Four outbuildings and one vehicle were damaged, according to Chief Joseph DeWolf of the Sonoita-Elgin Fire District. The fire was “nearly contained,” Monday morning, he added.� 

Firefighters were able to save downtown Elgin from a blaze that burned nearly 1,600 acres of private and public land.

Shortly after 1 p.m., the Sonoita-Elgin Fire District (SEFD) received “numerous calls” regarding smoke that was spotted southeast of Lower Elgin Road.

SEFD personnel were soon on hand but 28 mph winds were pushing the grassfire so that it wasn’t long before the blaze jumped Lower Elgin Road, burning east toward the village which comprises more than 100 residences, officials said.

“There were a lot of tense moments. We had to walk the fire around nine structures,” said Chief DeWolf, who said that the blaze burned “pretty close” to the edge of the village.

“That was one of our main objectives �“ to keep it out of there,” he said.

With assistance from crews from Patagonia, Fry, Whetstone, Huachuca City, Rural Metro, Corona de Tucson, the Bureau of Land Management, and the Coronado National Forest, firefighters were able to save downtown Elgin.

Tanker planes made several slurry drops, and a sky crane doused the blaze with loads of water from a stock tank on the nearby Rose Tree Ranch.

Two of the structures and a vehicle were burned at a residence on Upper Elgin Road before the fire continued northeasterly into the Mustang Mountains where it died out. DeWolf said that properties that sustained the least damage belonged to owners who had previously cleared brush, limbs and removed other fuels in order to be “Fire wise.”

By 10:30 p.m. the flames had subsided enough to let many firefighters go home, however a hand crew spent the night. Sunday morning SEFD firefighters continued to monitor activity and were doing so on Monday.

Chief DeWolf said that while investigators had located the general area where the fire started, the exact cause of the blaze was not known.

Electrical power went out in the Sonoita-Patagonia area about 3:30 p.m. Saturday due to the fire. Some power poles burned on the Sulphur Springs Electrical Cooperative Inc. line to Sonoita and caused the outage. Power was restored in Sonoita about 6:15 p.m. and around 7 p.m. in Patagonia.

(Robert E. Kimball contributed to this story)