"This is going to be a tough day," fire spokesman Jim Paxon said. "We're going to get beat up pretty hard."
Two enormous, wind-driven wildfires were believed to have merged into a 50-mile-long line of flame advancing through paper-dry forest in eastern Arizona. About 235,000 acres - 367 square miles - have burned since Thursday, and as many as 25,000 people have fled homes in more than half a dozen towns. It was unclear how many homes have been destroyed.
Show Low's 7,700 residents were ordered out late Saturday after the flames jumped a fire line crews were building about eight miles west of town, and the 3,500 residents of neighboring Pinetop-Lakeside followed early Sunday.
Pinetop-Lakeside being evacuated.
Show Low will probably get hit by the fire this afternoon. Winds still the problem, 20 mph predicted.
Springerville receiving evacuees ... tripled size of people in that town.
Many in Phoenix have summer homes up there, so I suppose those residents will be coming back here ... if they can. Highways probably congested.
A firefighter said that in 37 years, he has never seen the likes of it. 322,000 acres up in flames today.
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Last night a Smokey told me that the average humidity of a standing Ponderosa pine here now is less than 10%. Average humidity of a retail 2x4 in a (somewhere else!) lumber yard is around 19%.
More CLOSED signs, DO NOT CROSS tapes in the forest than a NYC crime scene.
Add the paranoia because lots of our local fire fighters are gone to help up on the Rim.
More than one 4x4 vigilante cruising about: "Hey Earl, ya' see some jerk starting a campfire, whacha' do?" "That depends on if I see 'em through my binocs, or my 'scope!"
I spoke to my sister (who still lives in AZ) last night, and the news there is that they now know what caused the smaller fire. Get ready for this: Some dopes who were out 4-wheeling ran out of gas and lit a signal fire so they might attract attention to get "rescued".
This was after the Rodeo fire was already burning out of control. They attracted attention all right.
In this image from NASA's Terra satellite captured about 2:30 p.m. EDT on Thursday, June 20, 2002, the Rodeo fire northeast of Phoenix is seen creating two large smoke plumes. The Rodeo fire began Tuesday and exploded from 1,200 acres Wednesday to 120,000 early Friday, June 21, 2002. (AP Photo/NASA)
Charred acreage at nearly 300,000 acres; fire to hit Show Low soon
Judd Slivka, Pat Flannery, Kristin Go June 23, 2002 11:05:00
SHOW LOW - Two huge wildfires raging through northeastern Arizona have exploded to a total of nearly 300,000 acres, fire officials said Sunday morning, with the larger blaze expected to hit Show Low by afternoon or Monday morning.
Cautioned operations section chief Buck Wickham, "That's a projection, and this fire has done nothing that we've projected yet."
Show Low on Sunday was a smoky, deserted town under a thick gray sky. Traffic lights were blinking on streets empty of traffic except for police cars and fire trucks - some from the Valley.
Businesses were shuttered, many with hand-lettered signs reading "Closed due to evacuation." Motels were empty except for fire crews. Every passing car seemed to be either law enforcement or bore a number painted in white on its windshield indicating the driver is a fire crew member. Fire Chief Ben Owens said everybody who wanted to leave town is gone. As for the others, "Maybe today when we're out there, we'll ask those people for their next of kin."
The two fires, the "Rodeo" fire and the "Chediski" fire, did not merge Saturday night as earlier reported, fire officials said Sunday morning, and remain about two miles apart. The Rodeo blaze is now estimated at 200,000 acres, they said, while the Chediski fire has consumed some 93,000 acres. There's no containment in sight.
Operations chief Roy Hall said, "We're going to try to hold in the southern part of Hop Canyon. I have no confidence we can hold it in the northern part of the canyon. Once it gets into town, its magnitude is increased by an order of 10."