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| Houses are seen along the US Route 180 as smoke from the Wallow Wildfire fills the sky in Luna, New Mexico. A wildfire in eastern Arizona forced the evacuation of a third town on Monday as it raged out of control for a ninth day |
Dogged by fierce winds and low humidity, some 2,300 firefighters battled flames in and around the Apache Sitgreaves National Forest that sent smoke billowing across several states, as far east as Iowa.
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer declared a state of emergency on Monday in two counties - Apache and Greenlee - in the rugged White Mountains region.
Fire information spokesman Deryl Jevons said gale-force wind gusts were making conditions especially difficult.
“That’s going to create some significant fire activity this afternoon,” he told Reuters.
The so-called Wallow Fire, burning about 400km northeast of Phoenix and stretching to near the Arizona-New Mexico border, ranks as the third-largest fire on record in Arizona.
As of Monday, containment of the blaze remained at zero, but fire officials were hoping to make some gains by Thursday or Friday, said Matt Benson, a spokesman for the governor, after she was briefed on the situation.
“It’s entirely dependent on weather conditions in that part of the state right now,” he said.
Casting an orange glow in the sky that could be seen for miles, the blaze has blackened nearly 234,000 acres, or 364 square miles (943 sq km), of forest land since erupting on May 29, according to state fire authorities.
On Monday afternoon, authorities ordered the evacuation of Greer, Arizona, a popular summer retreat in the region that is home to about 200 permanent residents, said Sergeant Richard Guinn, a spokesman for the Apache County Sheriff’s Office.
“The fire has continued to progress to a trigger point, so deputies are evacuating Greer as we speak,” he said.