Wildfire forces evacuation of over 700 homes in US state of Arizona

Winds have kicked up a towering wall of flames in rural northern Arizona, tearing through two-dozen structures and forcing the evacuation of more than 700 homes from the US state.

Coconino County declared an emergency on Tuesday as the fast-moving wildfire outside of the Northern Arizona University college town of Flagstaff ballooned to over 23 square kilometres, Sheriff Jim Driscoll said during a news conference.

County officials said 766 homes and 1,000 animals have been evacuated. 

More than 2,000 people live in the area, officials said.

A couple of hundred homes are still threatened as smoke billowed into the air in an all-too-familiar scene. 

Residents recalled scrambling to pack their bags and flee a dozen years ago during a much-larger wildfire burned in the same area.

Driscoll said the sheriff’s office got a call saying a man was trapped in his house, but that firefighters couldn’t get to him. They do not know if he survived.

'Fire can still move across cinders'

Flame lengths are as high as 100 feet, the US Forest Service said. 

Firefighters on Tuesday were up against 80 kph gusts that pushed the wildfire over the highway and weren’t expected to let up much this week, authorities said.

"It's blowing hard, and we have ash falling on the highway," said Coconino County sheriff's spokesman Jon Paxton.

About 200 firefighters were working the blaze that appeared to be moving northeast away from the more heavily populated areas of Flagstaff, toward Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument and volcanic cinders, said Coconino National Forest spokesperson Brady Smith.

"It's good in that it's not headed toward a very populated area, and it's headed toward less fuel," he said. "But depending on the intensity of the fire, fire can still move across cinders."

A top-level national fire management team is expected to take over later this week.

Fire and law enforcement agencies that were knocking on doors to warn of evacuations Tuesday were forced to pull out to avoid getting trapped by the flames, Paxton said. 

Arizona Public Service Co. shut off power to about 625 customers to keep firefighters safe, a spokesperson said.