Bartlett Lake businesses feel heat Wildcat Fire road closures ahead of Memorial Day

TONTO NATIONAL FOREST, Ariz. - The Wildcat Fire grew only slightly overnight and crews have the fire 35% contained. 

However, business owners in Bartlett Lake are feeling the heat.

Hovering around 14,000 acres burned, the most problematic aspect of the burn is the road closures in the area.

"It's crazy to go from a beautiful desert to black and charred earth," said Bryan Church, owner of Bartlett Lake Marina.

Meeting at the start of Bartlett Dam Road where the road closure begins, the start of the burn scar line is still visible as helicopters patrol the area.

Saturday, the area was evacuated.

What problems developed because of the road closures?

"Obviously, we were shut down." Church said. "So we lost a complete days of business during that time, which is unfortunate for us. Also, a lot of people didn't get news of that, so they towed their boats up here to the top of the hill and couldn't get down so my phone's been ringing off the hook," Church said.

Larry Mantle is a guide with Arizona Great Adventure fishing. His business has been impacted by the fire as well.

"What we do is take people out and show them a good time," Mantle said. "But now the lake is inaccessible right before the Memorial Day weekend."

Mantle says he has to take people to different lakes.

"The best two lakes are Roosevelt and Alamo but they're quite a ways away and people don't want to go that far," he said.

Will the road reopen before Memorial Day?

Church is hoping the road to the lake will reopen before the weekend, with so much on the line.

"It's probably well in the tens of thousands of dollars what we see for the weekend, so it's a good weekend," Church said.

The main issue is that Bartlett Dam Road is the only way to get into the marina.

Tonto National Forest announced the road is expected to reopen at 4 p.m. on Thursday.