Arizona wildfires rage out of control
Two enormous wildfires are believed to have merged into a 50-mile-long line of flame advancing through paper-dry forest in eastern Arizona.
About 235,000 acres have burned since over the past few days, and as many as 25,000 people have fled their homes in more than half a dozen towns.
Air tankers dropped slurry directly on homes in a final effort to save them.
The area, popular with hikers and Phoenix-area residents escaping the desert heat, is covered with pinion and pine left dry by years of drought.
The largest fire, burning since Tuesday, was thought to be human-caused, although authorities did not know whether it was an accident or arson. The other was started on Thursday by a lost hiker signaling for help.
In Colorado, crews struggled against an unpredictable blaze in the southwestern corner of the state, but cool weather helped firefighters battling a larger fire south of Denver.
A wind-driven blaze near Durango that has burned 67,700 acres and destroyed 45 homes is only 25% contained.
The 137,000-acre fire south of Denver is 60% contained. It has destroyed at least 114 homes and about 420 other buildings. The National Interagency Fire Centre said about 2,300 people remained under evacuation orders.
US Forest Service employee Terry Barton was arrested last week for allegedly setting the Denver-area fire. She has denied four federal counts, including arson.
