Firefighters expect to save the remote Arizona town of Snow Low from one of the fiercest western wildfires in US history, but officials said the terrible blaze was far from defeated.
Crews using bulldozers hacked out a few fire lines around the raging eastern Arizona wildfire for the first time early yesterday.
"We will not say Show Low is out of danger but if you look at our firefighters you see a change of morale," said fire spokesman Jim Paxon as crews worked double shifts to dig fire lines. "Mother Nature still has a role to play and she can still deal us a hand of misery."
Show Low Mayor Mr Gene Kelley said residents would most likely be able to return home on Monday.
The fire raging in Arizona high country has consumed about 410,000 acres, forced an estimated 30,000 people to flee their homes and destroyed more than 350 structures, many of them homes or businesses.
Emergency teams have fought for eight days to keep the ravenous wildfire from consuming the mountain resort town of Show Low.
Show Low - named for the winning hand in a card game between two 19th century homesteaders - has been among the first major battles of what fire officials predict could be one of the worst wildfire seasons in US history.
US President Mr Bush has declared the region a national disaster, freeing up federal funds to boost the rescue and recovery effort.
High temperatures and low humidity ignited a new fire in southwestern Colorado - a few miles from a blaze near Durango that has destroyed 45 homes.
The new fire, called the Valley fire, is separated from a blaze along Missionary Ridge by the Animas River.
Another blaze, the 19-day-old Hayman fire southwest of Denver, is now 77 per cent contained.