Address Contaminated Debris and Replace Maintenance Yard Storage Facility Destroyed by Wildland Fire

The Tunnel Fire ignited near a tunnel on Waterline Road in the Timberline-Fernwood community on April 17, 2022, and on April 19th, 50 mile per hour winds spread the fire across Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument (SUCR). In total, the Tunnel Fire burned 26,532 acres of land and destroyed 30 homes northeast of Flagstaff, Arizona. In total, 1,814 acres burned or 60% of SUCR at the time. The burn zone included much of SUCR, the access road from US Highway 89 into SUCR and the area surrounding the SUCR Visitor Center. In the maintenance yard area, near a known sensitive resource, four large metal storage containers, two vehicles, a pallet of road tar, equipment, tools, and other materials were destroyed by the fire.

Due to the damage from this fire, the purpose of this project is to clean up hazardous materials and to build a new maintenance storage facility to continue facilities and maintenance operations. The hazardous materials clean up and the construction of the maintenance yard storage facility are both occurring in previously disturbed areas, in or adjacent to the SUCR administrative area.

This project is needed to:
-Address the loss of a maintenance storage area to continue facilities and maintenance operations.
-Relocate current facilities and maintenance operations away from a known sensitive resource.
-Address hazardous materials that have seeped into the ground at the current maintenance storage location, which must be abated due to a potential health and safety hazard to NPS employees.

The new maintenance storage facility will be compatible with the adjacent historic district. An archeological monitor will be present for all ground disturbing activities.

The public review period is September 24, 2025 through October 24, 2025.