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Flagstaff residents watch, worry as mountain area burns

Flagstaff, Ariz. • Anxious residents packed up prized possessions Tuesday as hundreds of firefighters worked to keep a wildfire in a forested Arizona city away from homes and hoped the weather might bring some relief.

About two dozen homes have been evacuated in Flagstaff, a popular mountain getaway in the largest Ponderosa pine forest in the U.S.

Residents of another 5,000 homes have been told to be prepared to flee the fire in Coconino National Forest.

Justina Ferrara and her grandmother readied for possible evacuation by gathering important documents, photographs and treasured family heirlooms such as Kachina dolls and Native American blankets.