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Arizona Wildfire Forces Fast Decision: Fight Or Flee Flames?

Two packages sit in the driveway of the home that Jeanne and Mike Welnick owned outside Flagstaff, Ariz., on Tuesday, April 26, 2022. A massive wildfire that started Easter Sunday burned about 30 square miles and more than a dozen homes, hopscotching across the parched landscape. (AP Photo/Felicia Fonseca)
Two packages sit in the driveway of the home that Jeanne and Mike Welnick owned outside Flagstaff, Ariz., on Tuesday, April 26, 2022. A massive wildfire that started Easter Sunday burned about 30 square miles and more than a dozen homes, hopscotching across the parched landscape. (AP Photo/Felicia Fonseca)
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (FELICIA FONSECA)

Flagstaff, Ariz. (AP) -- In a small enclave in northern Arizona where homes are nestled in a Ponderosa pine forest and tourists delight in camping, hiking and cruising on ATVs, high winds are nothing new.

But when those winds recently ramped up and sent what was a small wildfire racing toward their homes, residents in the close-knit Girls Ranch neighborhood near Flagstaff faced a dilemma: quickly grab what they could and flee, or stay behind and try to ward off the towering, erratic flames.