The Sawmill Fire was a wildfire that burned in the U.S. state of Arizona in April 2017. The fire was caused by the detonation of a target packed with Tannerite at a gender reveal party in the Coronado National Forest. No injuries or fatalities resulted from the fire, nor were any buildings destroyed, though the fire did come close to the historic Empire Ranch, a National Register of Historic Places property. Over 800 personnel from various federal, state, and local agencies and organizations worked to contain and then extinguish the Sawmill Fire at a cost of $8.2 million (equivalent to $ million in ).
The fire was started by accident on April 23, 2017, by Dennis Dickey, an off-duty U.S. Border Patrol agent who had shot the Tannerite target. Dickey immediately informed first responders of the fire, which spread rapidly until it was contained on April 30. The U.S. Attorney's Office charged Dickey with a misdemeanor charge to which he pleaded guilty, fined him $220,000 in restitution (), and sentenced him to five years' probation. When the U.S. Forest Service released footage of the fire's inception in November 2018 at the request of a local news agency, the concept and practice of gender reveal parties became the subject of widespread ridicule and online mockery, a pattern repeated after later wildfires started at such events.
Background
Wildfires are a natural part of the ecological cycle of the Southwestern United States. The Sawmill Fire was one of 2,321 wildfires that burned in Arizona in 2017. The State of Arizona expected a "normal" season but one with high fire potential in the state's southern grasslands because of high temperatures, low humidity, and an abundance of fuels. By August 2017, wildfires had burned the most amount of land since the 2011 season. In May 2018, the Ecological Restoration Institute at Northern Arizona University published a study of the 2017 wildfire season in Arizona and New Mexico and observed that more land had burned in Arizona than the average of the previous ten years. Eleven fires were studied, of which ten were in Arizona and included the Sawmill Fire.
Cause
The fire began at around 11 am (MST) on April 23, 2017, in the Coronado National Forest, a state-owned property in south-central Arizona, south of Tucson, Arizona. The cause of the fire was a detonation at a gender reveal party hosted by the Dickey family of a target packed with blue dye to indicate the male gender of their child, and Tannerite, a highly explosive substance, by Dennis Dickey, an off-duty U.S. Border Patrol agent and the child's father. Dickey fired at the target four times, striking and detonating it with the fourth shot; the explosion immediately set the nearby grass on fire. According to his attorney, Dickey attempted to put out the fire but was unsuccessful because of the speed at which it was spreading. Afterward, Dickey alerted law enforcement and admitted culpability for the fire, and subsequently cooperated with authorities.
Fire
At the time the Sawmill Fire began, a fire warning for the area from the National Weather Service was in effect, as local wind speeds were as high as , and precipitation was abnormally low for the region. These conditions allowed the fire to spread quickly, and by the time elements of the Green Valley Fire Department arrived at 11:11 am (MDT), the Sawmill Fire had grown to and was spreading to the north and east. Firefighters began to attempt suppression of the fire, which was difficult in the rough terrain of the Santa Rita Mountains. By April 24, the fire had consumed about , despite the assistance of five airtankers and three helicopters carrying water. That night, the fire crossed and damaged Arizona State Route 83, which runs south through the Coronado National Forest and had been closed earlier that day, and headed east across the Santa Rita Mountains.