For 12 days, the Horseshoe 2 Fire affected only the eastern slopes of the Chiricahua Mountains.
Now the fire has spilled over to the west side in places, and every picnic area, road and campground in the 840-square-mile forest is closed until further notice.
The fire continues to spread in all directions, even against the wind, through vegetation measured at historically dry levels at the end of a nearly rainless winter.
The 150 or so residents of Portal and the world-class birding area in Cave Creek Canyon continue to be protected, although a research station and some homes in the Cave Creek drainage remain under an evacuation order.
On Friday afternoon, the incident-management team directing the 770-person army fighting the blaze also ordered the precautionary evacuation of Paradise, a rural enclave about two miles north of the fire.
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The evacuation, effective at 4 p.m., was temporary, said Karen Takai, spokeswoman for the team.
Fire managers worried that a fire being deliberately set to widen the defensive perimeter might escape. "You know - 'the best laid plans of mice and men,' " said Takai.
After the burnout, Forest Road 42 will become the northern line of defense between a previously blackened zone south of the Southwestern Research Station and the high mountain meadows of the Rustler Park area.
The 32 structures in Paradise, scattered across hills dotted with oaks and riparian canyons of sycamore, hold only five permanent residents. Other homes there are visited seasonally, and some appear abandoned.
The closure of the entire forest came as attention and resources continued to shift to the fire's western edge.
Fire managers had planned to hold the fire along the Crest Trail, a series of trails that run along the north-south spine of the mountains, but fire reached portions of it before a line could be fully established.
Part of the fire is burning in high-country devastated by the 27,500-acre Rattlesnake Fire in 1994. Fallen dead trees and standing snags are burning intensely in those areas, Takai said.
On Thursday night, residents at a community meeting in Rodeo, N.M., were told not to expect containment of the fire for weeks, and not to expect it to stop burning until monsoon humidity arrives in July.
Forest Roads 42 and 42B, which traverse the range between its east and west sides, are also closed, said a U.S. Forest Service media statement.
Fire crews plan to burn a portion of the Southwestern Research Station's private land to increase the chance of stopping the fire's spread, said Geoff Bender, operations director.
The station has been evacuated, but Bender and director Dawn Wilson stayed behind to run a generator to chill the freezers and warm the enclosures of the Chiricahua leopard frogs, an endangered species being raised there for reintroduction into the wilderness.
They are also collecting data from continuing experiments on the station grounds, where scientists in a variety of fields have conducted research for more than 50 years.
Contact reporter Tom Beal at tbeal@azstarnet.com or 573-4158.
