Hot, windy weather fanning flames in Southwest
Officials: Blaze in Central N.M. 40 percent contained
PRESCOTT VALLEY, Ariz. — An Arizona forest fire that shut down youth summer camps, forced thousands from their homes and came dangerously close to consuming a town was 43 percent contained by Thursday evening, authorities said.
About 1,400 evacuated residents of the community of Mayer were allowed to go home earlier in the day and Yavapai County Sheriff Scott Mascher estimated 2,000 other residents of other small communities remained out of their homes.
Campgrounds were also emptied and 1,400 children attending summer camps were bused out as the fire approached.
The fire, which has now burned about 45 square miles, was one of the top firefighting priorities in the U.S. after it rapidly grew while burning through a dense, rugged forest.
More than 800 firefighters were battling the blaze burning in the communities around Prescott, which draws a mix of desert dwellers escaping the heat, retirees and visitors to its famed Old West-themed Whiskey Row lined with bars.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey toured the fire zone about 100 miles north of Phoenix and thanked firefighters.
The flames crossed a road a day earlier and approached the town of Dewey-Humboldt, but officials said firefighters saved the community from devastation.
“When that fire jumped that road and started heading to Dewey-Humboldt, we thought it was gone,” Mascher said. “I thought there was no stopping it.”
Authorities estimated that the fire burned a handful of homes, but did not have an exact count.
The blaze also forced evacuations for children and campers in a cooler part of Arizona that many head to in the summer to escape the stifling heat.
Elsewhere, hundreds of people forced from their homes by a southern Utah wildfire were expected return home even as the blaze grew.
Fire managers said Thursday that 25 mph wind gusts have pushed the wildfire near the ski resort town of Brian Head to more than 91 square miles, though firefighters have boosted containment to 15 percent. The fire was ignited by someone using a weed-burning torch.
A wildfire in southwestern Colorado has grown to about 360 acres, and residents of a halfdozen subdivisions have been told to be ready to evacuate.
The Durango Herald reports some residents who had already left their homes were escorted back in Thursday to retrieve belongings, livestock and pets.
In Southern California, a wildfire burning on the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base and in the city of San Clemente was about 10 percent contained. Officials there say higher humidity levels slowed the fire’s pace.
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper declared a disaster emergency earlier Thursday, allowing the National Guard to help if needed. The state also sent aircraft to help ground crews.
Fires that flared dangerously close to homes in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles and in the city of Burbank were knocked down.
California’s largest wildfire was burning on 10 square miles in southern Riverside County.
And in Central New Mexico, a fast-moving wildfire sparked by lightning grew to nearly 8 square miles — burning grass and brush on privately owned land in Socorro County south of Albuquerque.
The plume of smoke could be seen by motorists on Interstate 25. Officials said that fire was 40 percent contained.