Arizona residents evacuated by wildfire allowed to go home

(CNN) -- After 13 days of staying in campers, trailers or with out-of-town relatives to escape a raging wildfire, the 200-plus residents of Nutrioso, Arizona, will be allowed to go home Wednesday morning.

Officials with an interagency team fighting a massive blaze in eastern Arizona said late Tuesday the evacuation order issued June 2 for Nutrioso had been lifted. Those carrying forms of identification showing they live in Nutrioso will be allowed to return to the town after 10 a.m. Wednesday, officials said.

The decision to lift the order came at the end of a day in which the blaze was officially recorded as the worst wildfire in Arizona history and firefighters claimed to have made significant strides in containing it.

The Wallow Fire, which has scorched more than 733 square miles in eastern Arizona and western New Mexico, was 20% contained as of late Tuesday, officials said.

"The fire line around Nutrioso is a nice black," said Peter Frenzen, a spokesman for the Southwest Incident Management team, which is fighting the blaze. "That's just testimony to the tremendous work going on around all the threatened communities."

The black on a map signifies that the fire has been stopped outside of the town.

"I was totally surprised," Nutrioso evacuee Alan Miller told CNN affiliate KNXV after learning the evacuation order had been lifted. "I was sitting in my seat squirming. I want to go out there now but I can't do it until tomorrow."

"That feels good," Nutrioso evacuee Dave Derker told the affiliate. "I want to go home."

The blaze has raged throughout the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest since May 29. KNXV reported Tuesday night that fire investigators suspect the blaze was started by a campfire.

"I looks like it was a campfire, and we've got a couple of people of interest that we're talking to right now," U.S. Forest Service spokesman Christopher Knoff told KNXV. The names of those people have not been released.

As crews gained ground on the Wallow Fire, firefighters on Tuesday battled another blaze that has burned 5,200 acres in southwest Arizona.

The so-called Monument Fire, which according to fire officials broke out Sunday afternoon, has threatened the homes of 120 residents and 30 outbuildings. It was 10% contained, Katy Hooper of the National Park Service said Tuesday.

Across Arizona, high temperatures, strong winds and an extended stretch of very low humidity are fueling at least five fires, with a combined burn area that tops 250,000 acres.

Besides Wallow, the largest of the fires is the Horseshoe Two fire in southern Arizona, which started May 8. The blaze, which has so far scorched 171,333 acres, was 53% contained as of late Tuesday. Firefighters have said that blaze has been difficult to get ahead of because of the area's steep terrain and relative isolation.

The Wallow Fire has destroyed 32 homes and 36 outbuildings including sheds and barns. It has drawn 4,734 firefighters from Arizona and around the country. The blaze is the largest fire currently active in the United States, according to Inciweb, an interagency fire information service.

"The great news on this incident is we still have a total of seven injuries and they're all minor," Frenzen said late Tuesday.

Prior to Tuesday, the biggest wildfire on record in Arizona was the 2002 Rodeo-Chediski fire which scorched 722 square miles in Arizona.

Jayson Coil, a manager with the incident response team, said forecast winds from the northwest could fan flames in areas that have been previously sheltered from the fire and push the blaze south.

Fire teams are most closely focusing on the area north of Luna, New Mexico, and west to Alpine, Arizona, communities on the fire's eastern flank, Coil said.

Firefighters were working nine miles of fire line close to population centers in that high-priority section of the fire, he said. They were burning vegetation near the Luna Lake area Tuesday in a bid to strengthen and connect containment lines.

On the west side of the fire, commanders were focusing on shoring up containment lines around Burro Mountain and the Sunrise Ski Resort, Coil said.

"There's a line of mixed conifer where that line was put in, and because of that it's requiring a lot of extra suppression efforts," he said. "That mixed conifer holds (heat) for a long time."

Conditions around Greer, Arizona, also continued to improve, with power restored to the area, Coil said. But it is unclear when residents of that community might be allowed home. The evacuated residents of Alpine are also waiting to hear when they go home.

Regarding when the evacuation orders for Alpine and Greer might be lifted, ""We're talking a three-, four- or five-day time frame," Frenzen said.

Crews continued to patrol areas around Springerville and Eagar, where some burned-out areas began to smoke Monday because of the ultra-low humidity in the area, Coil said.

Residents were allowed to return to those communities, which are about 170 miles east-northeast of Phoenix, on Sunday.

CNN's Samuel Gardner III contributed to this report.

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