With the 28-day Pocket Fire effectively contained on July 14 and subsequently extinguished by the major monsoonal rainstorm from July 15 to 17, the blaze is out, but the repercussions remain.
While the fire and efforts to fight it made headlines around the world, the fire itself caused no physical damage to Sedona and almost none to Oak Creek Canyon itself — the Pocket Fire did burn the northwestern portion of West Fork and debris from that portion of the burn flowed into Oak Creek and downstream as the big monsoon storm flushed out the canyon’s tributaries. Some 30 days of smoke and ash filled the canyon and settled on the terrain, which then washed into the waters turning them gray and black as they flowed down stream from the confluence of West Fork with Oak Creek.
The big problem for Sedona is counting the empty hotel rooms, the canceled reservations, missed shifts for workers who had no work to do as restaurants, hotels, retail store, and the slowest of all slow summers that was supposed to pay the bills and rent. Coupled with inflation and runaway fuel and energy costs from a war of choice halfway across the world and the economic effects did as much damage as a fire in the canyon itself would have.
Those of us who remember the Slide Fire of 2014 or the Brins Mesa Fire of 2006 know that the spectre of wildfire burning over the skies of Sedona can recall the same troubles that befell our region after both of these fires. The Slide Fire lasted nearly as long as the Pocket Fire. While it was only 77% as big, the Slide Fire was in the canyon itself, eating its way up the right bank of Oak Creek along the top of the Mogollon Rim, with the western areas in the same area as the eastern areas of the Pocket Fire.
State Route 89A was closed 26 days between Sedona and the Interstate 17 interchange south of Flagstaff, cutting the lifeline for Oak Creek Canyon’s restaurants, motels, bed-and-breakfasts and shops that desperately need summertime dollars in June, July and August and bring tourists into Uptown from the north.
When the Arizona Department of Transportation finally reopened the road on the morning of July 13, it was the signal that the Verde Valley could start breathing again economically.
While we think of Sedona as a must-see destination — it’s why many resident wound up moving here in the first place — for many tourists heading to or from Grand Canyon National Park or along Interstate 40 from east to west or west to east, Sedona is a bypass destination they visit if they have half a day to drive down Oak Creek Canyon. They’ll take in the view, stop for a meal or shopping, then continue on. While the Greater Sedona Chamber of Commerce is dedicated to making Sedona a destination in and of itself, a lot of its efforts — and those of Sedona area businesses — are aimed at turning these pass-throughs into a short stay, just for an overnight.
With the canyon closed to all through-traffic, these visitors opted not to detour for a day, cutting into those one-night hotel stays and the evening restaurant meals, breakfasts, hikes and tours, bringing revenue to local businesses and sales taxes to Sedona and other Verde Valley communities.
Most of Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon’s businesses run thin profit margins. They are not the kind of operations with corporate reserves sitting in a out-of-state ledgers state, waiting for other “assets” to offset a bad month in the Sedona market. They are mom-and-pop, single proprietor shops, stores, restaurants and small hotels that need summer income to carry them through to fall and they lost nearly four weeks due to the Pocket Fire and more as the economy takes time to recover. Behind each those storefront are the cashiers, sales people, maids, cooks, servers, dishwashers, maintenance workers and contractors commuting in from around the Verde Valley.
The $25,000 gift the Stevenson family into the newly formed Red Rock Recovery Fund and Coconino County disaster relief loans will help, but it may take a long time for the economy to return to pre-fire conditions.
While we can’t control when or where a fire burns, we can control what we do. If there’s a shop in Oak Creek Canyon you’ve been meaning to visit, a wine tasting room in Cornville or Cottonwood, an outdoor outfitter in Sedona, or a shop in any of the five Verde Valley municipalities and all our unincorporated communities you’ve supported and don’t want to see disappear, now is the time to go. The fire is behind us but the recovery is ahead.
