Authorities in southern Arizona on Monday were going through neighborhoods to tally the damage from a wildfire that was pushed by fierce winds into a heavily-populated area, burning homes and businesses.
Officials say the fire came off a mountain Sunday afternoon into the outskirts of Sierra Vista and forced about 3,000 residents of 1,700 homes to flee. The evacuations brought the total number to about 10,000 people from 4,300 homes forced out by the Monument fire.
The blaze began June 12 and had destroyed 44 homes before Sunday.
Among the confirmed losses Sunday was a popular Mexican restaurant. Officials expected to get a confirmed count of the losses by midday, said Carol Capas, a spokeswoman for the Cochise County Sheriff's Office.
"I can't speculate right now," Capas said Monday. "We really need to wait and see."
Much lighter winds Monday were allowing aircraft to again attack several fires in Arizona and New Mexico. Air crews had been grounded for most of Sunday. Firefighting efforts have been dogged for days by hot, windy weather.
Meanwhile, the massive Wallow fire that has been burning in eastern Arizona for three weeks kept about 200 residents of Luna, N.M., under an evacuation order for a third day.
One of the last areas in Arizona still evacuated was reopening Monday. Residents of the picturesque resort town of Greer were being issued passes to return home. Early in the day, Greer Fire chief Mark Wade was personally escorting the owners of 22 destroyed homes in first.
"The fire chief really wants to handle them with kid gloves, handle them with dignity, and give them time to deal with it before the masses return to their homes," fire information officer Larry Tunforss said.
Touring the Wallow fire area on Saturday, Sen. John McCain said "there was substantial evidence" that some of the fires in southern Arizona may have been started by illegal immigrants and tighter border security would have prevented them.