By Amanda Lee Myers
The Associated Press
SEDONA, Ariz. — A 1,500-acre wildfire threatening northern Arizona’s scenic Oak Creek Canyon was only 5 percent contained Tuesday as crews tried to stop it from reaching hundreds of homes clustered among dry manzanita and juniper trees.
At least 11 helicopters and air tankers were available Tuesday to help ground crews, said Joe Reinarz, commander of the team fighting the fire.
The fire started Sunday and forced the evacuation of about 400 homes and businesses in narrow Oak Creek Canyon and about 100 homes in the smaller canyons on the rugged north side of Sedona, a town about 90 miles north of Phoenix surrounded by red-hued cliffs that draw builders of expensive homes and thousands of tourists.
Crews also were battling wildfires in Colorado, New Mexico and California.
By Tuesday morning, officials said the Sedona fire was only about a half-mile from the edge of Slide Rock State Park and flames had crested Wilson Mountain, edging about 300 feet below the rim of Oak Creek Canyon in spots.
“We want to hang it up there as high as we can and let it grow low and slow,” Reinarz said Tuesday.
If the fire burns down to the two-lane scenic highway along the canyon bottom, crews hope to make a stand there. Most homes are on the opposite side of the highway, Reinarz said.
A high temperature of about 100 was forecast Tuesday for Sedona, with very low humidity and wind of 10 to 20 mph.
“I’m a little apprehensive,” said Sedona Mayor Pud Colquitt, one of the evacuees from Oak Creek Canyon. “It’s a wait-and-see now.”
Authorities believe the blaze started in a camp used by transients.
In neighboring New Mexico, four fires started by lightning had burned more than 30,000 acres in the tinder-dry Gila National Forest in the southwestern part of the state. The biggest had charred nearly 12,000 acres and threatened 150 homes in the Lake Roberts area. Residents were being allowed to return Tuesday, said fire information officer Brian Morris.
A 7,000-acre fire northeast of Glenwood, N.M., in Catron County, prompted evacuations of about 30 cabins and campgrounds, Morris said.
In southern Colorado, crews braced for more dry, windy weather Tuesday as they confronted a wildfire that exploded across 4,500 acres about 10 miles northeast of Fort Garland, triggering the evacuation of 270 homes in two counties. No houses had been destroyed.
“We can’t get out in front of this thing, it’s moving like a freight train,” fire information officer Steve Segin said.
A California brush fire spread over 6,000 acres of hilly terrain in Los Padres National Forest. No houses were threatened but two sheds and three trailers were destroyed, U.S. Forest Service spokesman Joe Pasinato said.
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 a large part of this year’s acreage.
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On the Net:
National Interagency Fire Center: http://www.nifc.gov/
Drought Monitor: http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/index.html/