Homes, structures destroyed in Nev. wildfire

A Nevada wildfire threatening 120 homes grew to 5,000 acres in less than a day and destroyed two residences as well as 17 structures, officials said Wednesday as crews prepared for another attack.

Firefighters are battling a series of dangerous blazes in the West and Southwest in dry weather and strong winds.

In northern Nevada, some 360 firefighters were trying to protect homes at the Topaz Ranch Estates near Wellington. The cause was under investigation.

No relief was in sight until Friday when rain and cooler temperatures are forecast. The only good news, the incident commander reported, was that for now the winds are pushing the fire "away from residential areas."

The fire is only 10 percent contained, but officials hope to have it under control by Saturday.

Blazes in rugged, mountainous areas of Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado have already forced the evacuation of several small towns and torched more than 70 square miles of forest, brush and grass over the past 10 days.

The Arizona blazes were the first major wildfires in the Grand Canyon state this year after a record 2011 fire season in which nearly 2,000 blazes consumed over 1,500 square miles, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

More than 1,100 firefighters made slow progress against the most dangerous of the blazes burning in the U.S. Southwest, the so-called Gladiator Fire in Arizona.

That fire, which has charred about 23 square miles of ponderosa pine and brush some 40 miles north of Phoenix, was 19 percent contained on Tuesday, up from 15 percent a day earlier.

"Stronger winds and very low humidity, along with high temperature and extremely dry fuels made firefighters' work more difficult" on Wednesday, a fire incident statement said.

Authorities added that the fire had torched two more structures, bringing the total to six.

The blaze, which has cast a pall of grayish smoke over the northeast Phoenix valley over the past week, has forced the evacuation of about 350 residents of the old mining town of Crown King and three other tiny communities nearby.

Crews battling the largest of the four Arizona fires, the 25-square-mile Sunflower Fire, had succeeded in reinforcing control lines on Monday, although authorities cautioned that dead trees burning sporadically in the remote, rugged Tonto National Forest could lead to smoke in nearby communities.

Arizona's smaller Bull Flat and Elwood fires were mostly contained.

In New Mexico, authorities said the summer community of Willow Creek was being evacuated as a precaution because of a fire sparked by lightning burning in steep, rugged terrain of the Gila Wilderness area, where two separate fires have burned around 11 square miles.

In Colorado, crews had the 12-square mile Hewlett Fire burning in the Roosevelt National Forest almost completely contained, fire officials said.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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