TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - Crews on Saturday worked to protect several small Arizona communities from two large wildfires by clearing away brush near homes and setting fires aimed at robbing the blazes of their fuel.
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer called the Wallow Fire, near the White Mountain community of Alpine, "absolutely frightening."
The fire grew to 218 square miles, or more than 140,000 acres, becoming the third largest in state history, with its smoke visible well into New Mexico and parts of southern Colorado.
Fire officials said they had zero containment of the fire near the New Mexico-Arizona state line, which has forced an unknown number of people to evacuate.
"It was unbelievable - the expansion of the smoke," Brewer said after an aerial tour of the blaze and a briefing from fire team's commander in Springerville.
"It was horrific and of the likes of a fire of which I have never experienced from the air," she told reporters. "We hope that we get more encouraging news in the morning."
The fire has burned four summer rental cabins since it started May 29, the U.S. Forest Service said.
Crews were working to protect homes in Alpine and nearby Nutrioso from the fire and blowing embers that could start smaller, spot fires. The fire had reached Alpine's outskirts and was about two miles away from homes in Nutrioso, said Bob Dyson, a spokesman for the team fighting the blaze.
A shift in winds around midafternoon Saturday blew embers that started a spot fire at the southwestern corner of Alpine. A helicopter knocked down that fire by dumping water on it, and no buildings were damaged or destroyed as a result.
The yellowish smoke in Alpine was so heavy that it reduced visibility to about a quarter mile.
Authorities Friday night warned residents of the town of Greer to be ready to leave, but no evacuation order has been issued. Greer has fewer than 200 permanent residents, but the town and area attract many vacationers.
In terms of size, the Wallow Fire ranks behind Arizona's 469,000-acre Rodeo-Chediski Fire in 2002 and the 248,000-acre Cave Creek complex fire in 2005.
Meanwhile, crews were protecting a church camp and two communities from the Horseshoe Two fire that had burned 140 square miles in far southern Arizona. It's the fifth-largest fire in state history.
The 90,200-acre blaze reached the evacuated Methodist church camp in the steep Pine Canyon near the community of Paradise on Friday night.
Helicopters dumped water and retardant on a hotspot near the camp.
"Crews were successful in saving the camp," fire officials said in a statement.
Fire teams also were focusing on protecting the evacuated communities of Paradise and East Whitetail Canyon.
Paradise fared well Friday as crews set fires that burned natural forest fuels and kept the blaze from about a dozen occupied homes and many other vacation residences.
"The fire passed through ... we prevented it from reaching any structures," Steven Berube, spokesman for the southwest fire incident management team, told The Associated Press late Friday.
He said crews were doing the same thing around East Whitetail Canyon where "the blaze will almost certainly be reaching."
The fire, which is 55 percent contained, was drawing near to the eight to 10 homes there.
The nearby Chiricahua National Monument was closed as a precaution.
The Horseshoe Two fire has been burning since May 8 and about 800 firefighters were battling it.