The blaze, which has burned some 67 square miles, is about 2 ½ miles north of Cedar Creek.
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The communities of McNary, Hon-dah, Pinetop-Lakeside, Show Low and Cedar Creek remain under pre-evacuation notice. In addition, a spot fire in advance of the fire’s southern edge had ignited, also east of the containment line on the other side of the creek.
West of Santa Barbara, firefighters have increased containment of a almost 12½-square-mile blaze to 70 percent a week after it started.
A wildfire in east-central Arizona that has doubled in size to almost 42 square miles is burning in an area with more sparse vegetation.
No more than 100 campers and people staying in cabins fled, Routt National Forest spokesman Aaron Voos said.
The department says alerts were sent to 476 telephone numbers, along with 120 text messages and 103 emails. But he says getting more help is hard because of other fires across the West.
Elsewhere in the West, a forest fire near the Colorado-Wyoming line exploded in size and forced campers to evacuate.
Navopache Electric Cooperative has de-energized the power lines to three eastern Arizona towns on the White Mountain Apache Indian Reservation to help crews battling a wildfire. The interruption of power is necessary to protect firefighters while they conduct burnout operations near the power lines.
Residents have been told to prepare to evacuate from Show Low, Pinetop-Lakeside and the immediate surrounding areas.
Cedar Fire on June 19, 2016.
Incident commander Mike Wakoski says stronger winds are coming Wednesday afternoon and evening, and they could push the flames. Some evacuations below in the foothill city of Duarte were being lifted, but the calm was not expected to last.
High heat that blanketed Southern California at the start of the week has retreated eastward, allowing moist ocean air to push well into the Los Angeles basin during the morning.
The fire that began June 15 now is about 56 square miles and is expected to grow a few more square miles Tuesday. More than 700 homes were ordered evacuated earlier this week, but it was not immediately clear how many were cleared for return Wednesday.
There were fears yesterday that two wildfires east of Los Angeles could join and form a huge inferno. However it remained under the pre-evacuation notice.
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Authorities in Bernalillo and Torrance counties lifted evacuation orders in some areas Tuesday after crews contained almost half of a wildfire that has destroyed two dozen homes. Helicopters also have dropped more than 2,100 gallons of water close to where there are structures. Gov. Susana Martinez planned to be among those working the checkpoints.
