PUNKIN CENTER, Ariz. (AP) -- About 150 homes were evacuated as firefighters battled a 38,000-acre wildfire that came within 2 miles of the city, firefighters said.
The blaze was about 40 percent contained, said Tonto National Forest spokeswoman Tammy Pike. About 500 firefighters built lines with bulldozers and by hand Thursday to protect the city and the Tonto Basin area, she said.
''They didn't particularly feel that the homes were threatened, but they wanted to make sure that they could get in there and get fire line burned out,'' said Emily Garber, another forest spokeswoman.
Arizona firefighters also battled a 10,450-acre fire burning 15 miles northeast of Wickenburg in the Bradshaw Mountains. That blaze was 5 percent contained, said George Taylor, a spokesman for the team fighting the fire.
Residents of a remote town in southwestern Utah voluntarily evacuated their homes Thursday ahead of a wildfire that blackened more than 800 acres.
The blaze threatened 20 structures near Motoqua, an unincorporated town about 20 miles northwest of St. George, on the Utah-Nevada border.
The fire had not damaged any buildings, but some residents left their homes voluntarily as the flames approached, said David Boyd, a fire spokesman for the Bureau of Land Management.
The National Interagency Fire Center said 35 large fires were active Thursday in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon and Utah. Nearly 3.9 million acres of land has been burned so far this year, compared with 4.6 million at this time last year.
