Wind Sweeps Fire Down Mountains Toward Tucson

Officials urged residents and guests of a desert resort to evacuate an exclusive enclave on the city’s northern fringe after a wildfire sped downhill, surprising firefighters and threatening up to 300 homes.

The area, called Ventana Canyon, is a high-desert enclave that includes upscale homes and the Loews Ventana Canyon Resort. There are 200 to 300 homes there, said George Heaney, a bureau chief with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department.

The voluntary evacuation notice came after strong winds pushed the fire downhill faster than expected, said Donna Nemeth, a fire information officer.

Ventana Canyon is in the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains, where the fire has raged since June 17. It has burned at least 70,000 acres.

The fire skirted fire lines last week and burned six cabins between Friday night and early Saturday. But lines created by burnouts, brush clearing and tree thinning continued to hold Sunday around dozens of other homes and cabins, several youth camps, an observatory and communications towers operated by organizations including the Federal Aviation Administration.

But as the situation on top of the mountain looked better, the fire kept creeping down the mountain face toward the foothills.

Officials said they could snuff it with helicopter water drops and back-burns and that thin desert vegetation in the foothills would make the fire easy to fight if it approached homes.

The fire also was about half a mile from the visitor center at Sabino Canyon, a popular recreation area that was closed due to the fire.

The human-caused fire destroyed 317 homes last month in and around the vacation hamlet of Summerhaven.

Far to the north, a community eight miles south of Prescott, Ariz., got a scare when a fire broke out Saturday night and quickly consumed 25 acres. About 100 residents were urged to evacuate. On Sunday, firefighters had the fire ringed with lines and no structures were lost, U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Mary Nunez said.

New Mexico fire crews said Sunday that the ancient Indian village at Taos Pueblo was out of danger as a 1,500-acre wildfire burned away from the ancient adobe landmark.

On Friday, the lightning-caused fire burned to within half a mile of the village, which is one of New Mexico’s major tourist draws. By Sunday the flames were five miles away, fire information officer Bill Duemling said.