© Reuters/U.S. Forest Service
Smoke rises into the air from a large forest fire which has consumed a total of 82,252 acres as seen in this U.S. Forest Service handout photo taken in Gila National Forest, New Mexico May 25, 2012.
Smoke rises into the air from a large forest fire which has consumed a total of 82,252 acres as seen in this U.S. Forest Service handout photo taken in Gila National Forest, New Mexico May 25, 2012.
Efforts to contain the blazes spreading in sparsely populated areas of Arizona, Colorado, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah have been hurt by gusting winds and tinder-dry late-spring conditions.
Several small towns, including the historic Wild West mining town of Mogollon - now nearly a ghost town - were ordered to evacuate, as the spreading fire torched miles forest, brush and grass.
New Mexico's Whitewater-Baldy Complex fire, which was started by lightning 10 days ago, had raged across 82,252 acres as of Friday and officials said the area could now be much larger than that.
"We know that there was significant growth yesterday, but we don't have a hard and fast number," said Fire Information Officer Dan Ware.
More than 580 firefighters and support crew have been fighting the blaze.
"This is the biggest show in the country right now in terms of fire size. So a lot of resources are available to us. We're just not sure we'll be able to do a lot of flying," Ware said.
He said access to the fire had been the chief difficulty as it was burning in very steep, rugged terrain where firefighters were not able to cut through the brush and timber.
"Fire activity was so extreme yesterday we had to pull crews out," he said. "We're expecting another day like that today. With such high wind levels and low humidity there's going to be big potential for some major growth."
