Arizona and New Mexico face a heightened risk of fire as strong winds are forecast to sweep through both states Friday, according to the National Weather Service.
The relentless winds threaten to spread an 11,600-acre fire in southern Arizona that torched 40 homes and forced the evacuation of hundreds on Thursday.
The winds could undo some of the progress made by crews battling the Wallow blaze that has burned an area of the Apache - Sitgreaves National Forest.
"Yes it is a threat. Anything could happen," said Terry Stemmler, a spokesman for the Southwest Incident Management Team, which is battling the latter of the two blazes.
Stemmler said crews are faced with four straight days of red flag warnings that started Thursday with the return of strong winds to a dry region. A red flag warning means weather conditions -- high winds and low humidity -- pose an extreme risk for fire.
"This whole part of the country is in extreme drought," said Dale Thompson, a spokesman for fire crews. "Grass will take off like gasoline."
The National Weather Service placed such a warning on much of eastern Arizona, from the Mexico border to the Utah state line for Friday.
It issued a red flag alert for much of western and northeastern New Mexico, while the remainder of that state was put under a fire weather watch, where the risk is less severe.
High winds sparked a spot fire Thursday just south of the town of Eagar, Arizona. The incident prompted authorities to issue a pre-evacuation notice to residents of 230 homes on the south side of the city, Stemmler said. That means the residents should prepare to abandon their homes if ordered to do so.
Eagar residents just returned home Sunday, four days after the spread of the so-called Wallow fire forced them to evacuate.
As of Thursday night, the Wallow Fire had scorched 487,016 acres in eastern Arizona and western New Mexico, the vast majority of it in the Apache - Sitgreaves National Forest on the Arizona side, authorities said.
The blaze, which is 33% contained, became the largest wildfire in Arizona on Tuesday.
To the south, the much smaller Monument Fire has burned 11,600 acres and is only 17% contained, according to InciWeb, the online interagency incident database.
The Monument Fire roared in the Huachuca Mountains near the Mexican border south of Sierra Vista, Arizona, on Thursday. Wind gusts of up to 35 miles per hour were reported in the area, and people in 1,700 of approximately 3,230 homes were ordered out.
Some residents did not want to leave their homes.
"We had a situation where a family said they were staying behind," said Carol Capas, a spokeswoman for the Cochise County Sheriff's Office. "We got a teenage daughter who later called us from that home and said she didn't want to be there so our officers went over there and got her out."
The sheriff's office urged residents to be patient.
"Public safety officials are doing everything possible to get people to safety in a timely and professional manner, so the cooperation of the public is critical," the agency said.
