Wildfire Near Sedona Creeps Closer to Homes

A 1,500-acre wildfire moved downhill Tuesday and threatened homes at the bottom of northern Arizona’s scenic Oak Creek Canyon.

The flames were less than half a mile from the highway at the canyon bottom, and power to homes and businesses was being shut down, said Katherine Sanchez Meador, a fire information officer with the Coconino National Forest.

Some residents had remained in the canyon despite a mandatory evacuation, and sirens were “letting them know it’s time to get out of there,” Meador said.

Only 5% contained, the blaze was near hundreds of homes clustered among dry manzanita and juniper trees. Its movement down the side of the canyon reversed officials’ earlier optimism.

The fire, which officials think began Sunday at a transient camp, forced the evacuation of about 400 homes and businesses in narrow Oak Creek Canyon and about 100 homes in the smaller canyons on the rugged north side of Sedona, a town about 90 miles north of Phoenix surrounded by red-hued cliffs that draw builders of expensive homes and thousands of tourists.

At least 11 helicopters and air tankers were available Tuesday to help ground crews, said Joe Reinarz, commander of the team fighting the fire. More than 450 firefighters were on the ground, and crews were installing sprinklers and clearing brush around the homes in an effort to protect them. No buildings had been lost by Tuesday.

If the fire burns down to the two-lane scenic highway along the canyon bottom, which it was nearing, crews hope to make a stand there. Most homes are on the opposite side of the highway, Reinarz said.

In New Mexico, four fires started by lightning had burned more than 30,000 acres in the tinder-dry Gila National Forest in the southwestern part of the state. The biggest had charred nearly 12,000 acres and threatened 150 homes in the Lake Roberts area.