Maricopa Fire Department was sent home from a still-raging fire that sparked at Thunderbird Farms last night.

Thunderbird Fire District Chief Allen Allcott confirmed a lightning strike ignited the fire around 8:30 p.m. Crews have stopped the blaze from spreading.

Flareups persisted throughout the afternoon, which Allcott attributed to wind changes.

“This fire is going to burn for another week to 10 days,” he said.

Allcott could not confirm how much land burned. Last summer, the same farm saw as many as 20 acres charred after a similar fire raged for more than a week.

The fire along North Warren Road south of West Pima Road could be seen as far as Coolidge and west Phoenix. A tinge of smoke filled the air in Maricopa this afternoon as ash plumes rained into residents’ yards and pools.

Maricopa Fire Department wrangled with the blaze this afternoon before crews from the Bureau of Indian Affairs relieved municipal firefighters, city spokesperson Brandon LaVorgna told InMaricopa.

MFD did not disclose how many people it sent or how long they stayed at the scene.

Matt Benson, a spokesperson for the Ak-Chin Indian Community, confirmed the tribe responded as part of a mutual aid agreement.

Crews worked with Electrical District 3 to reroute power and confirmed they avoided outages in the area, according to Allcott. Residents in the area weren’t evacuated.

Details on the spread of the fire and efforts to extinguish it remain scant. Volunteers from the North Hidden Valley Fire Department, who were first at the scene, said the blaze was contained this morning. The department declined further comment.

Allcott advised locals with respiratory issues to wear a mask if heading outdoors and for people to avoid the area.

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