25,000 Flee U.S. Arizona Wall of Fire

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, June 24, 2002

25,000 Flee U.S. Arizona Wall of Fire

Two mammoth wildfires raged unchecked through paper-dry forest Sunday, threatening to join in a 50-mile-long line of flames and burn right into Show Low, a town of 7,700 people.

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Two mammoth wildfires raged unchecked through paper-dry forest Sunday, threatening to join in a 50-mile-long line of flames and burn right into Show Low, a town of 7,700 people.

The blazes already had destroyed about 185 homes elsewhere in the highlands of eastern Arizona,U.S., and as many as 25,000 people had fled more than half a dozen towns, including Show Low.

Firefighters braced to defend neighborhoods on the west side of town.

In west Show Low, where an estimated 80% of residents live, a wall of smoke hovered over treetops near the exclusive community of Torreon, a gated subdivision on a golf course.

Most of the community was a virtual ghost town by afternoon. All the new cars had been moved off the lot of a Toyota dealership and stores stood empty. Cars, pickups and RV's covered the parking lot of a K-Mart and Family Dollar, a safehouse of sorts for abandoned family vehicles.

The wildfires had burned more than 293,000 acres by Sunday. Afternoon temperatures were expected to reach the 90s, with single-digit humidity and shifting wind that was expected to further fan the flames.

As flames overran Heber-Overgaard, 35 miles west of Show Low, on Saturday, firefighters were able to save a large number of houses with help from air tankers that had dropped flame-retardant slurry directly on rooftops Paxon said. Seventy homes burned there, he said.

Firefighters likely couldn't stop flames from entering Show Low, either, said Larry Humphrey, the incident commander. Their plan called for pulling back, letting the fire hit and then fighting where they could.

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