the team includes 15 of those elite hotshot wildfire crews. this comes less than a year after a wildfire near yarnell killed all but one member of the granite mountain hot shots. two cities that attract a lot of visitors during the summer season which unofficially kicks off during this memorial weekend. heavy smoke may be drifting north into flagstaff. that s where ana cabrera is standing by live for us. reporter: right now 300 people are evacuated but some 3,000 are on standby just in case the fire continues to really roar. you can see the winds are now picking up. you see that huge plume of smoke that is spawning to the north. the winds are blowing it right into flagstaff. like you said, 5,000 acres are burning through really heavy fuel. you can see all of the forested
and throw those sparks downwind so when the firefighters think they have a handle on this, all of a sudden, there s another fire two miles down the road that they have to chase. it s the size and circumference around that they have to worry about. with no containment, it s getting bigger and bigger. you want to get it while it is small. when it gets large, the circumference gets bigger and bigger. the air conditions are 20% relative humidity and even lower in some spots. so no help from mother nature. and some of the storms that ana was talking about could be bad. we re talking about dry thunderstorms. the rain evaporates before it gets to the ground but the lightning doesn t evaporate. it could start another fire. one more thing to talk about, there is severe weather across the eastern part of the country. we had a tornado warning not far from albany, new york, in the past hour. we ll keep you updated.
retardant on the ground. it s the most crucial people in this fire fight. there s a possibility there will be a low pressure system coming in overnight, possibly rain tomorrow. the next few hours are going to be a key to getting these fires under control, jake. ana cabrera, thank you. it s going to be very tough to get a lid on this monster. let s go to chad myers. how big of a threat is this? i don t think anybody really understands what the entire southwest part of the country has been going through in the past few years. this is a major threat. 4800 acres, almost 5,000 acres. that s five times, almost six times the size of central park right now on fire and that has just grown, obviously, in the last couple of days. the winds right now are 28 gusting there and that s the gust problem. the gust also pick up the sparks
the general public hasn t seen any of these 13 works of heart since they were stolen a quarter of a century ago. apparently someone has. and quite recently. good afternoon. i m jake tapper. in our national lead, you know what they say about arizona, it s a dry heat but it s way too dry right now. dangerous drought conditions leaving the area between sedona and flagstaff as kindling for a wildfire burning at an alarming rate. it was 450 acres and today it is more than ten times that size. burning near slide rock state park. the fire is threatening 300 structures. we re talking mainly homes and vacation homes. thousands have been evacuated. more than 800 firefighters are making a stand against the flames but officials say the fire is 0% contained at this point. 0%.
air. the big ponderosa pine needles. it s really fueling the flames right now. we know this fire exploded within a 24-hour period of time from 450 acres to more than 4500 acres yesterday. today, firefighters are working hard to establish a line, particularly on the north and the east side of the fire. that s where those homes are that are currently threatened. no structures damaged so far and that s what they are focusing on right now. they are throwing everything they have at this fire. some 840 personnel are here. 500 people are on the ground building the fireline to help the northeast flank in particular. the helicopter is up in the air. that s one of the air attack helicopters. we know there are a total of five helicopters as well as three air tankers helping in this firefight putting fire