More than 700 homes have been evacuated due to a wildfire which kicked up a towering wall of flames outside a northern Arizona tourist town.
Flames as high as 100 feet raced through scattered homes, dry grass and Ponderosa pine trees on the outskirts of Flagstaff, some 140 miles north of Phoenix, as wind gusts of up to 50 mph pushed the blaze over a major highway.
Coconino County officials said during an evening news conference that 766 homes and 1,000 animals had been evacuated. About 250 structures remained threatened in the area popular with hikers and off-road vehicle users and where astronauts have trained amid volcanic cinder pits.
The county declared an emergency after the wildfire ballooned from 100 acres on Tuesday morning to over 9 square miles by evening as ash rained from the sky.
The fire was moving north-east away from the more heavily populated areas of Flagstaff, home to Northern Arizona University, and toward Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, said Coconino National Forest spokesman Brady Smith.
“It’s good in that it’s not headed toward a very populated area, and it’s headed toward less fuel,” Mr Smith said. “But depending on the intensity of the fire, fire can still move across cinders.”
Authorities will not be able to determine whether anyone was injured in the wildfire until the flames subside. Firefighters and law enforcement officers went door to door telling people to evacuate but had to pull out to avoid getting boxed in, authorities said.
Earlier in the day, the blaze shut down US 89, the main route between Flagstaff and far northern Arizona, and communities on the Navajo Nation. The high winds grounded aircraft that could drop water and fire retardant on the fire.
Arizona Public Service Co, the state’s largest utility, shut off power to about 625 customers to keep firefighters safe.
About 200 firefighters were battling the flames, but more are expected as a top-level national management team takes over later this week.
