Firefighters gain in battling wildfires

Firefighters appeared to be gaining control Saturday over a wildfire that has threatened homes and other structures in two northern Arizona forests. The 6-square-mile Promontory fire was 60 percent contained and officials projected full containment by Tuesday.

Crews were working to reinforce a containment line surrounding the 4,000-acre fire and patrol for hot spots. Nearly 700 firefighters were working the blaze, which started Sunday and was believed to have been caused by a person.

Rain in the area Friday also doused some flames and dampened other unburned pockets within the blaze.

Flames remained about a mile from the community of Christopher Creek. The community is south of See Canyon, where some 20 residents were evacuated from cabins. The caretaker of a nearby Bible camp also was evacuated.

Officials said the evacuees could be allowed to return this weekend.

Elsewhere, rain helped firefighters fight a blaze that burned 27 square miles of forest in the dry southern New Jersey Pinelands. At the height of the fire, 6,000 people were evacuated and a handful of homes were damaged or destroyed.

The New Jersey Forest Fire Service had the fire 90 percent contained Saturday, said Bert Plante, a division fire warden.

New Jersey Air National Guard officials said the fire might have been sparked by a flare dropped from an F-16 fighter jet during a training mission Tuesday.

Firefighters were making progress battling a wildfire along the Georgia-Florida border, which was 70 percent contained Friday, officials said. More than 700 homes in Florida were evacuated earlier in the week, but the last of those orders was lifted Saturday, a state forestry official said.

A fire in northern Minnesota that had burned 117 square miles in the U.S. and Canada as of Friday could be brought under control by Sunday, officials said.