Wildfire Threatens 'Jewel Of Arizona'

A 3,260-acre fire approached a popular state park in northern Arizona, and Colorado's governor banned open burning and fireworks as a wildfire there grew to nearly 12,000 acres.

If the 3,260-acre blaze crosses the northern line crews are building and continues its march up the edge of Oak Creek Canyon, the next possible place to stop its advance is 2½ miles to the north, said Paul Broyles, the commander leading the 700 men and women battling the blaze, and more homes may be in danger.

"Today's a critical day," he told firefighters early Thursday. "I won't say it's a last ditch, but there's lot of potential. This is our good shot."

Hundreds of firefighters struggled Wednesday to prevent flames from jumping a highway in Arizona's scenic Oak Creek Canyon and threatening an area of evacuated homes and resorts. The blaze was only 7 percent contained in the steep, rugged terrain, and firefighters are finding it a tough battle, reports . Officials say it could be weeks before this fire is out.

"We're a long way from going home," said operations section chief Kole Berriochoa. "The fire got very active, ran our crews out."

It's the northeast side of this fire that poses the greatest threat, reports McCormick. and the steep rugged terrain that's making it so difficult to fight.

"They're on very steep rocks, just knife ridges and fuel on both sides of them," said Berriochoa.

Air tankers will be brought in Thursday to drop retardant, but Berriochoa says the battle will have to be won on the ground.

Flames had neared the two-lane highway that runs through the middle of the canyon, but crews were able to burn away fuel in its path, officials said. The fire also approached the area of Slide Rock State Park, a popular recreation spot that draws hundreds of thousands of visitors a year.

Officials said the fire burned at a moderate rate Wednesday but cautioned that any strong winds could change everything.

"It can get real bad, real quick with the right weather conditions," said Mike Dondero, deputy incident commander for the team fighting the fire. "If we get any weather that makes the fire cross 89, that's our biggest fear."

The blaze started Sunday in a camp used by transients and spread quickly, forcing the evacuation of about 460 homes and businesses in the canyon more than 90 miles north of Phoenix. The Forest Service is offering a reward up to $5,000 for information leading to a conviction of those responsible for the fire.

Mike Yeager has a home in the lushly forested canyon, whose walls are tinted crimson by iron oxide.

"It makes me so mad. I just want to spit," he said. "These people started a fire in the most beautiful place in the world."

Gov. Janet Napolitano declared a state of emergency Monday to activate the state's 211 phone system, which provides people with information about natural disasters and other emergencies.

Oak Creek Canyon "is the jewel of Arizona," said Napolitano, who toured the area by air. "We want to do everything we can do to save this area."

In southern Colorado, a wildfire grew to 11,800 acres as Gov. Bill Owens banned open burning and fireworks on state-owned land — and urged local officials to do the same. Thunderstorms ignited several fires across the state.

No homes were destroyed by the blaze, but about 300 were evacuated as helicopters dropped water on smoldering ground within two miles of a rural subdivision east of Fort Garland.

Officials said the fire was 50 percent contained by Wednesday evening, with crews allowing it to burn itself out in uninhabited wilderness. Fire managers would like to set backfires to burn off nearby vegetation that could ignite should the wildfire return that way, but the weather has been too damp to keep a backfire burning.

Owens toured fire lines near Fort Garland and likened the statewide danger to the disastrous fire year of 2002, when 235 homes were destroyed.

"The current hot, dry conditions increase the potential for a major fire every day," Owens said.

Debbie Pettigrew decided not to evacuate but backed a trailer up to her house in case she had to pack family heirlooms and leave in a hurry. She said her family's roots run deep in the area and some of her furniture dates to the covered-wagon era.

"It's not just trees that are burning, it's history," Pettigrew said.

In New Mexico, heat, wind and rugged terrain slowed efforts to control fires that have burned nearly 70,000 acres of forest.

The largest blaze, burning across about 33,250 acres in southwestern New Mexico, continued to threaten cabins in the Willow Creek area, fire officials warned.

In California, firefighters battled a blaze of more than 13,000 acres that had stopped short of a critical ridgeline in Los Padres National Forest. No homes were threatened as the fire burned away from the small town of New Cuyama, about 45 miles east of Santa Maria.

Wildfires have charred more than 3.1 million acres nationwide so far this year, well ahead of the average of about 900,000 acres by this time, the National Interagency Fire Center reported. Huge grass fires that swept Texas and Oklahoma this spring account for much of the increase.