12 homes consumed by huge NM wildfire 12 homes consumed by huge NM wildfire - Weather 12 homes consumed by massive New Mexico wildfire Other crews make progress in fires across West, Southwest Two New Mexico fires that merged into one destroyed 12 homes and have burned more than 110 square miles, firefighters said Thursday. In rugged terrain in the Gila Wilderness area, the fire destroyed the homes in the Willow Creek community. More homes in a neighboring community are threatened and firefighters don't expect windy conditions to allow an aerial attack until at least Sunday, NBC affiliate KOB-TV reported. Elsewhere, blazes in rugged, mountainous areas of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and Utah have forced the evacuation of a few small towns and torched at least 60 square miles of forest, brush and grass since mid-month. The Arizona fires were the first major blazes in the Grand Canyon state this year after a record 2011 fire season in which nearly 2,000 fires charred more than 1,500 square miles, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. More than 1,100 firefighters using aircraft and hand tools made progress toward containing the Southwest's most dangerous conflagration, the so-called Gladiator Fire in Arizona. That fire, which has torched more than 27 square miles of ponderosa pine and brush some 40 miles north of Phoenix, was 30 percent contained on Thursday, up from 26 percent a day earlier. "The winds we've gotten here in the last 24 hours have brought in some moisture from Baja (California)," said Dave Killebrew, a spokesman for the local fire incident team. Humidity reached up to as high as 50 percent in some areas of the fire, which is excellent ... That means that the fuels won't be nearly as volatile as they have been for the last few days when we've had relative humidity down as low as 3-5 percent," he added. Killebrew said good progress was being made securing containment lines around the blaze, which forced the evacuation of the town of Crown King and three other tiny communities nearby. In northern Nevada, lighter winds and higher humidity helped crews' efforts to curb the Topaz Ranch Estates wildfire that has razed more than 9 square miles of brush south of Carson City, charring two homes and more than a dozen outbuildings. No homes were immediately threatened an evacuation order was lifted on Wednesday. While gusting winds challenged firefighters, rains and cooler temperatures were expected to help crews bring the flames under control by Saturday. "Any storm front that comes off the sierras is preceded by extremely high winds," incident team spokesman John Stonelake told Reuters. "If we can get through the wind event, things are looking pretty good," he added. Crews battling the 25-square-mile Sunflower Fire, in Arizona, had succeeded in reinforcing control lines and it was more than 40 percent under control. A large human-caused wildfire that scorched 18.5 square miles in Mexico before creeping across the border to Arizona was running out of fuel Thursday after consuming 50 acres of grass, brush and oak in the Coronado National Forest. Utah firefighters battling a 2,200-acre blaze on public and private land southeast of Hurricane, about 290 miles south of Salt Lake City said they expected to bring it under full control on Thursday.