Flagstaff-area residents evacuated in wind-whipped wildfire

By FELICIA FONSECA
Associated Press

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — A fast-moving wildfire in rural northern Arizona has ballooned to over 3 square miles Tuesday as winds whipped the flames, shut down a major highway and grounded aircraft that could drop water and fire retardant. Residents on the outskirts of Flagstaff were contending with gusts of up to 50 mph as they left home. Fire and law enforcement agencies were going door to door to warn of evacuations. Elsewhere in Arizona, firefighters battled a wildfire in a sparsely populated area of the Prescott National Forest south of Prescott. In southern Arizona, a principal highway between Bisbee and Sierra Vista reopened Tuesday after being shut down because of a brush fire.