Political India: Engaging America

From The Hindu

Arizona is burning, and this time it is not a metaphorical conflagration of anti-immigration laws or violent shootings by gun-toting extremists but a real fire that is consuming vast swathes of the beleaguered state's rural tracts.

The Wallow Fire, named after its starting point at the Bear Wallow Wilderness in eastern Arizona, is said to be burning so fast that it is already the third-largest fire on record and, aided by winds, is on track to becoming the largest ever.

With 389,000 acres charred and 11 buildings completely gutted by the fire already, local authorities ordered the evacuation of over 7,000 residents in two towns directly in the path of the advancing flames.

Although the fire has so far been contained primarily in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, where it was said to have been set off by an unattended campfire, the residents of Springerville and Eagar towns have already fled their homes, reports said.

Even as 2,500 fire-fighters battled the blaze from ground and sky officials warned that power transmission lines were in danger and states as far as Texas and New Mexico could suffer blackouts over the coming days.

Some New Mexico towns were also subject to evacuation orders. Observers said that air near Springerville was a “sickly yellow... thick with acrid smoke.”

Satellite imagery by the National Aeronautical and Space Administration captured the extent of damage visually, showing the 600 square miles of the Ponderosa Pine Forest that was burned since the fire started around May 29.

Reports quoted Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, who visited the fire scene earlier, saying that it was a “frightening sight” as she viewed it from a plane.

One rancher in the area, Denny Finch, summed up the mood of helplessness in the state when he said to a media outlet, “[The authorities] are doing all that they can but this fire is in charge of its own destiny.”