CAREFREE, Ariz. (AP) -- Two fast-moving, lightning-caused brush fires moved within about a mile of merging Wednesday in the Tonto National Forest, the flames from one forcing the evacuation of an estimated 200 to 400 homes, spokesmen said.
Winds moving from the south-southeast pushed flames from one of the fires making up the 2,000-acre Cave Creek Complex fire to the Tonto Hills subdivision, about 20 miles northeast of Phoenix, said Jim Payne, a regional Forest Service spokesman.
''The areas we're concerned about are to the east. And that includes the Tonto Hills subdivision. The fire has reached the top of a ridge. Aircraft are putting slurry there to keep the fire from backing down (the hill),'' he said.
He said the fire was about 1
