(CNN) -- Crews battling one of the worst wildfires in Arizona could get their biggest break yet Friday when the high winds driving the flames are expected to weaken.
The blaze has scorched an area bigger than Los Angeles, sending thousands fleeing.
Firefighters battling the so-called Wallow Fire gained ground Thursday for the first time since the blaze broke out in late May. They also confirmed that 29 houses have been destroyed.
The number includes 22 homes in Greer that were annihilated when the blaze blew through town Wednesday afternoon.
See photos of the raging fire and efforts to fight it
Officials were in the process of telling evacuated residents whether their homes had been spared or destroyed, a spokesman said Thursday night.
"For most of us in the fire world, it's unfortunately become a common occurrence that we experience loss of residences," said Jim Whittington, spokesman with the Southwest Interagency Incident Management team. "It doesn't matter if they're rich or poor, if they live in a mansion or if they live in a very small house, the pain on people's faces is exactly the same."
"Our hearts go out to those folks and we're thinking about you," Whittington said.
Gary Linthicum of Scottdale told CNN affiliate KNXV that his family's summer home in Greer was among houses destroyed.
"My wife's taking it pretty hard," Linthicum said. "It was kind of a special place to her and all the kids so it's going to be something we're going to miss."
The house is valued at $1.2 million and is insured, the affiliate said.
Tracy Marasco told the affiliate that her home had survived the flames that had swept through Greer on Wednesday. Thursday's calmer winds brought additional relief for her.
"The erratic winds weren't there so that's a big ray of hope," Marasco said.
Whittington said firefighters on Thursday appeared to turn a corner on the relentless blaze, holding the line in some areas and preventing the spread of the fire into the towns of Eagar and Springerville.
At a community meeting Thursday, residents of those towns were told they might be able to return to their homes over the weekend.
The fire is 5 % contained, Whittington said.
Among other things, firefighters have been relying on a method called backfiring, in which they light smaller fires ahead of the blaze in hopes that it dies in the crispy timber.
"We've been reacting to this fire since the beginning. This was the first day we've been able to go after it," Whittington said.
Calmer winds buttressed the firefighting effort on Thursday. The National Weather Service forecast that Friday's winds could be lighter than they've been since the Wallow Fire started to sweep through Apache National Forest on May 29.
Whittington said the latest forecast gives firefighters a 36-hour window to gain ground before the winds pick up to 25 mph Saturday afternoon.
"Every minute, every second between now and when those winds hit, we've got to be doing really good work," Whittington said.
On Thursday, fire officials and power companies said they were planning for the possibility that the blaze would reach crucial transmission lines that supply power to thousands.
El Paso Electric said that the fire had crept to within 15 miles of company transmission lines that serve nearly 400,000 people. The utility was preparing for contingency plans, including rolling blackouts in some areas, she said.
"We do have a couple of transmissions lines that the fire is approaching. The fire is currently about eight miles from that line," Joe Salkowski, spokesman for Tucson Electric Power told CNN.
Tucson Electric serves about 400,000 customers, Salkowski said.
Another area power company, Navopache Electric, said on its website that some of its service territory remained without power, including Greer, Sunrise, Big Lake and South Fork.
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has declared a state of emergency to mobilize funds for the wildfires in Apache and Greenlee counties.
The blaze, about 525 square miles, has caused authorities to evacuate more than 6,000 people.Journalist Craig Johnson contributed to this report.
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