Associated Press President Bush greets Lakeside, Ariz., firefighter Jeff Sterling at Springerville Babbitt Field in Springerville. Bush, who took an aerial tour of the 500-square-mile fire in eastern Arizona, also met with families and firefighters affected by the wildfire before heading to Canada to attend the G-8 summit.

Bush hears grim assessment of battle against Îmonsterâ blaze near Show Low

SHOW LOW ÷ A fire line carved overnight kept one of the Westâs worst wildfires out of this mountain town Tuesday, but the blaze raged on another front. Miles away, it destroyed at least 15 more homes and threatened hundreds of others.

President Bush toured the region by air with Gov. Jane Hull, was briefed at a hangar in nearby Springerville, then met with some of the 30,000 evacuees.

ãA lot of people in our country are pulling for you,ä Bush told them.

In rolled-up shirt sleeves and viewing a map of the giant fire, the president heard a grim assessment.

ãWith the fuel built up and the dryness of the conditions thereâs not a heck of a lot we can do,ä said Larry Humphrey, incident team commander for the Bureau of Land Management.

The 15 homes burned on Monday when the fire swept into the southwest portion of the small town of Heber, 35 miles west of Show Low, fire information officer Ed Perault said. That brings the number of homes lost in the 351,000-acre blaze to at least 390.

A fire camp was evacuated for a time when the blaze moved into the town.

ãItâs like a tidal wave, itâs just amazing,ä Perault said. ãItâs fire like a lot of folks have never seen.ä

The western edge of the fire was threatening a major transmission line to Phoenix, but utility officials said that if the line is shut down, the power could be transferred to other routes.

Associated Press An air tanker drops slurry onto the burning Rodeo-Chediski wildfire near Heber, Arizona Tuesday June 25, 2002. The blaze has blackened 375,000 acres or 586 square miles, an area larger than Los Angeles, with no containment in sight.

On the northwestern corner of the fire, the blaze threatened a fish hatchery and ranch. If it burned through those areas, it could head up the steep slopes of the Mogollon Rim to Forest Lake Estates, an area of about 900 homes 14 miles west of Heber, Perault said.

Residents evacuated last week from Heber expressed frustration that most of the attention was on Show Low, while the fire wreaked havoc elsewhere. Most of the homes and businesses destroyed so far have been in the Heber-Overgaard area.

ãNinety-nine percent of the focus is on Show Low, we feel non-existent out here,ä said Monika Rowland-Simon, who doesnât know the fate of her home 20 miles north of Heber.

On the fireâs northeastern edge, improved weather allowed fire crews to strengthen and complete two fire lines. Then they burned the area between them to create a blackened buffer zone to protect Show Low, a town of 7,700.

ãThe question is being asked: ÎAre they going to hold it today?äâ fire operations officer Bill Brandau told firefighters at a briefing Tuesday morning. ãYâall are gonna hold it.ä

That marked a change in attitude toward the enormous blaze.

ãWeâre back to fighting this fire,ä fire spokesman Jim Paxon said earlier. ãItâs been beating us up for a week, and weâre back to fighting this monster.ä

Before he left Washington, the president declared Apache and Navajo counties and the Fort Apache Indian Reservation major disaster areas, making them eligible for federal aid and low-cost loans.

Hundreds of firefighters were heading to the scene in the White Mountains of eastern Arizona, with the total force expected to reach 5,000 to 6,000.

Frustration and impatience were growing among the evacuees, many of whom have spent days in shelters without any word about their homes. Navajo County planned to set up a telephone number residents could call to find out whether their homes were still standing.

ãI feel so helpless,ä said Alli Klein, whose family lives in Heber. ãI wish this emotional roller coaster that Iâve been experiencing would end soon.ä

The fire still could make an end run around the fire line on the east side, but officials believed that a frontal assault on the town and on another nearby community could be averted.