At a gas station full of firefighters and evacuees on Wednesday, a woman was sitting in her car crying as she watched the wildfire rise in her neighborhood.
"I'm not ready for this yet," he said as he and his neighbors waited to hear about their homes near Flagstaff, Ariz. "Not too early."
Wind-driven spring fires teeming green trees and shaking in Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado, burning many homes and forcing thousands of people to flee during the longest growing and destructive fires as climate change dries up the West.
In northern Arizona, a fast-moving Tunnel fire was burning in a forest and rural area about 14 miles northeast of the college town of Flagstaff. The fire, the cause of which is being investigated, spread to more than 19,700 hectares on Wednesday and destroyed 25 buildings, according to a Sheriff County Office spokesman.
A zero fire rate was contained on Wednesday evening, and no deaths or injuries were reported.
The Tunnel Fire is one of the few fires that have erupted in the West in recent weeks, fueled by turbulent winds, years of drought and severe shortages of spring rain or snow.
"We used to have a fire season," said Don Falk, a professor of natural resources at the University of Arizona, Tucson. "It simply came to our notice then. The fire season is 12 months. ”
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In New Mexico, a wildfire recently killed two people and burned at least 200 buildings near Ruidoso. The blazing flames blazed uncontrollably in the national forest outside Prescott, Ariz., And rose to 1,600 hectares on Wednesday. And in Colorado, firefighters in Boulder, where a winter grass fire destroyed more than 1,000 homes, spent the last week running to put out a few small fires.
A fire that broke out in San Luis Valley in southern Colorado destroyed or destroyed at least 16 buildings on Wednesday as it devastated the town of Monte Vista, according to Alamosa News.
In total, more than 2,300 firefighters across the West are currently battling fires and about 830,000 hectares have been burned this year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. In Arizona alone, more than 500 firefighters are fighting two huge flames.
"Everyone is out of the fire," said Tiffany Davila, a spokeswoman for Arizona's Department of Forestry and Fire Management.
Winds thwarted efforts to contain the Tunnel fire by stopping firefighting planes on Tuesday. Fire officials said winds in northern Arizona were expected to blow up to 30 miles an hour on Thursday and Friday.
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Forecasts have also warned that strong winds and dry conditions will make the next few days dangerous throughout the Southwest. The National Weather Service in Boulder has issued a warning about the dangers of extreme fires from southern Arizona and New Mexico up the coastal plains east of Colorado.
Officials said the Tunnel fire was not a threat to Flagstaff, home to the University of Northern Arizona with about 77,000 residents, and hoped the winds would continue to push it into sparsely populated areas. The blaze forced the closure of the Sunset Crater Volcano and Wupatki National Monuments, dispersing park officials who said they did not know how long they would be evicted.
Residents said they ignored the small fire when it was first reported on Sunday and saw smoke billowing behind San Francisco Peaks. But on Tuesday afternoon, they were rushing to escape the curtain of flames and smoke after a strong wind blew through their barns and two-hectare yards.
"It was like driving to Mordor," said Amber Randall, who ran home from work in Sedona, about an hour later, while her assistant rescued dogs and cats and a valuable painting by David Bowie at her home. “There was no time. There is no time."
By Wednesday afternoon, the winds were renewing as Carla Chiquito, 51, and her family sat in the parking lot of the gas station just outside the forced exit limits. Her husband was left behind, hitting the yard with a pipe after a neighbour's house caught fire.
Lisa Bishop set out with a cattle cart, hoping to return some of her animals to her home after a fire broke out in her neighborhood in the Timberline-Fernwood community, causing extensive damage.
He said he was not too concerned about the threat of fire. The area around him caught fire a dozen years ago, but he felt protected by the highway that was between his home and the forest.