A 583km2 blaze that has grown into the third-largest in Arizona’s history covered a mountain vacation town in a smoky fog on Sunday, as wind blew smoke from the burning pine forest well into New Mexico and Colorado.
Crews have not contained the fire near the New Mexico-Arizona state line, which has forced residents to evacuate from several mountain towns.
In the vacation town of Greer, which has fewer than 200 year-round residents, many voluntarily left on Saturday. Those who remained, mostly business owners, dealt with haze heavily tinged with smoke on Sunday, including the owner of the historic Molly Butler Lodge who was getting ready to leave.
Allan Johnson spent the morning getting antiques, including an 1886 table brought by covered wagon from Utah and a 1928 Oldsmobile the lodge uses for weddings, out of the fire’s path.
He said he was not taking reservations, but was keeping open the restaurant, mainly as a meeting place.
Greer is within kilometers of the fire, which officials expect will grow given a windy forecast and expected dry lightning on Sunday and yesterday. If the blaze comes within 3km of a containment line nearby, the town will be evacuated.
“We’re all waiting for the word,” Johnson said. “It could be 24 hours, could be eight hours. It might not happen at all — that’s what we’re all rooting and praying for.”
Winds died down overnight, allowing crews to burn 50km of containment lines between active and unburned areas that create a buffer from the most violent wind-driven runs.
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer called the blaze “horrific” following an aerial tour on Saturday, and said it was “the likes of a fire of which I have never experienced from the air.”
In Nutrioso, the blaze came within 3km of homes, and heavy yellowish smoke in Alpine reduced visibility to about 400m.
Smoke drifted into northwestern New Mexico towns such as Fence Lake and Zuni Pueblo, said National Weather Service meteorologist Mark Fetting, and was expected as far north as Gallup.
No serious injuries have been reported.
The fire is the state’s third-largest, behind a 2002 blaze that blackened more than 1,895km2 and one in 2005 that burned about 1,002km2 in the Phoenix suburb of Cave Creek.
The state also was contending with another major wildfire, its fifth-largest, in far southeastern Arizona that threatened a church camp and two communities. Air crews dumped water and retardant near the Methodist church camp on Saturday as the 404km2 blaze burned around the evacuated camp in the steep Pine Canyon near the community of Paradise.
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