Two mammoth wildfires raged unchecked through forests in Arizona today, threatening to join in a 50-mile long line of flames and burn right through Show Low, a town of 7,700 people.
The blazes have already destroyed about 185 homes in eastern Arizona, and up to 25,000 people have fled more than half a dozen towns.
"It's gut-wrenching watching this plume of smoke come up over us and knowing what's behind it and knowing what's it's going to do to our community," said Show Low police chief John Corder. "My house is probably going to be one of the first houses to go."
The fire is expected to reach the outskirts of Show Low later today, said fire spokesman Mr Jim Paxon.
Seventy of the houses already destroyed are in Heber-Overgaard, a community 35 miles west of Show Low. The town’s residents were ordered out late yesterday with householders in neighbouring Pinetop-Lakeside being forced to early today.
The two wildfires had earlier overrun parts of the evacuated towns of Pinedale and Clay Springs.
The area, popular with hikers and Phoenix-area residents who have built second homes to escape the desert heat, is covered with juniper and pine trees made explosively dry by years of drought.
Mr Paxon said preliminary counts showed 115 homes had burned in towns just west of Show Low in a wildfire that exploded in size after starting on Tuesday. Authorities said they did not know whether it was caused by an accident or arson.
Across seven states in western United States, 17 large fires are burning on 721,806 acres, according to the National Interagency Fire Centre.
AP