SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - The Latest on wildfires burning across the West (all times local):
3:45 p.m.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has declared a state of emergency to get additional funds to fight wildfires.
In the past two months, Arizona has had more than a dozen large wildfires.
Friday’s declaration issues a state of emergency until additional funds are made available at the start of the new fiscal year beginning July 1.
It authorizes $200,000 of emergency funds and requests that the State Emergency Council, made up of state and legislative officials, provide the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management additional resources as needed.
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3:35 p.m.
Officials have ordered more evacuations in Utah communities near a wildfire that’s burned 13 homes and eight outbuildings.
Fire spokeswoman Erin Darboven said residents and visitors in two communities and a campground were told to leave Friday after the fire burning near the ski town of Brian Head doubled in size overnight.
Darboven said Brian Head along with half a dozen small mountain communities and several campgrounds are all under evacuation orders.
Darboven did not know how many homes were evacuated or the number of residents who fled.
Fire officials say hundreds of people have been out of their homes since the fire ignited Saturday.
The Garfield County Sheriff’s Office did not return messages seeking more information.
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2:20 p.m.
Increasing fire danger has prompted officials to impose fire restrictions on the nation’s largest American Indian reservation.
Navajo Nation leaders and the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs announced the restrictions this week, prohibiting fireworks as well as campfires outside of developed sites. The Navajo Nation spans more than 27,400 square miles (70,000 square kilometers) in parts of New Mexico, Arizona and southeastern Utah.
Navajo President Russell Begaye says his executive order is not meant to restrict residents but to prevent human-caused fires and protect people and their property.
Officials said ceremonial fires will be permitted as long a tribal burn registration is obtained.
The tribe is the latest in the Southwest to impose restrictions as forests around the region have already done so as wildfires burn and hot, dry conditions persist.
Navajo officials say they will reconsider the restrictions once conditions improve.
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11:15 a.m.
Officials say a Utah wildfire has burned a total of 13 homes as it spreads through an area with houses and cabins near a popular fishing lake.
Forest Service spokeswoman Cigi Burton said Friday that nine more homes were destroyed overnight. But she says nobody was injured because the residences were among 400 evacuated Thursday near the ski town of Brian Head.
More than 700 other people have been out of their homes since Saturday, when the fire was ignited by someone using a torch to burn weeds.
The fire has quickly spread toward a lake in the past two days amid high winds and hot temperatures. It has charred 43 square miles (112 square kilometers).
A 48-mile (77 kilometers) stretch of highway also is closed.
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This item has been corrected to show that 13 total homes have burned.
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10:26 a.m.
A wildfire near a southern Utah ski town has burned more homes as it spreads toward an area with homes and cabins near a popular fishing lake.
Forest Service spokeswoman Cigi Burton said Friday the fire near Brian Head doubled in size for the second straight night to 43 square miles (112 square kilometers). Burton says fire officials have seen from planes above that more homes have burned but they don’t know how many because of heavy smoke.
About 400 additional homes were evacuated Thursday. More than 700 people have been out of their homes in the small resort town of Brian Head since Saturday when the fire was started by someone using a torch to burn weeds.
A 48-mile (77 kilometers) stretch of Highway 143 is closed from Parowan to Panguitch.
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