Arizona Fire is Now Record Setting

The Wallow Fire, which authorities suspect started from a small unattended campfire, has scorched dozens of homes and displaced as many as 10,000 people since it erupted May 29 in the White Mountains region, an area popular among Arizonans as a weekend getaway from the heat of summer.

The wind-whipped blaze has burned mostly in and around the Apache Sitgreaves National Forest, about 150 miles east of Phoenix, churning through vast stretches of thick ponderosa pine.

Evacuation orders were lifted on Sunday for 7,000 to 8,000 residents forced to flee last week from two towns near the border with New Mexico, Springerville and Eagar.

But authorities have warned returning families that lingering smoke and soot in the air pose health risks for children and people with respiratory problems.

An estimated 1,900 additional people from several nearby towns evacuated in the first week of the blaze were notified on Monday night that it would probably be at least a few more days before they would be permitted to go back home.

While the blaze is far from being brought under control, fire managers said on Monday that they had turned a corner in their battle to curtail its advance toward populated areas.

"Nobody's really in the clear yet," U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Suzanne Flory said on Tuesday, but she added, "Overall, there's a sense of optimism."

Some 4,300 firefighters working around the clock have now carved containment lines around 18 percent of the fire's perimeter, mostly between its eastern flank and communities on either side of the Arizona-New Mexico line.

The New Mexico town of Luna, an enclave of about 200 people less than 10 miles east of the Arizona border, remains on alert for possible evacuation.

Controlled burns have been carried out on the outskirts of that town to remove tinder-dry brush and trees as potential fuel for advancing flames. But U.S. Forest Service officials say that so far the Wallow Fire itself has not crept into New Mexico.

The latest aerial infrared images of the fire on Tuesday show that 469,407 acres -- or about 733 square miles -- have burned overall, surpassing the 468,638 acres charred in 2002 by the Rodeo-Chediski Fire in eastern Arizona. That makes the Wallow Fire the largest on record in Arizona.

In terms of property losses, however, the Rodeo-Chidiski was far worse, destroying about 400 homes, Flory said.

Arizona Fires Continue to Burn

More than 1,300 firefighters from across the nation worked to try to protect several small mountain communities and stop the stubborn wildfire, burning about 250 miles northeast of Phoenix.

"They are making progress halting the advance of the fire," Deryl Jevons, a fire information spokesman, told Reuters. "It's not like we've shut it down. But we've had a better time of it in the last few days."

Weather conditions had been helping firefighting efforts, but there was fear on Sunday that wind speeds would increase and lightning might strike the area, Jevons said.

The so-called Wallow Fire, which broke out a week ago, is now the third-largest in Arizona history. It was at zero percent containment.

Several hundred residents in the small community of Alpine and tiny Nutrioso were forced to flee their homes late on Thursday, and American Red Cross officials said as many as seven residences were destroyed.

There has been no estimate for when these residents would be able to return home.