The Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management is warning that the wildfire that closed parts of Interstate 17 north of Phoenix over the weekend is just the beginning of a very active season.

The human-caused Stage Fire burning near New River grew to 249 acres on Saturday. The Department of Forestry said the blaze was 90% contained by Sunday.

Spokesperson Tiffany Davila says people need to take extra care because Arizona’s early heat wave is only making matters worse. 

“Temperatures are heating up a little bit earlier than what we’re used to seeing at this time of the year. We had this fire, human-caused fire, we had multiple fires before this one started on Saturday, human-caused fires,” Davila said. 

Davila says the central region of the state, all the way down to the Sonoran Desert into southern Arizona is at risk.