Payson, Ariz. ? Editor’s note: Jim Keyworth is a reporter for the Payson Roundup, a central Arizona newspaper owned by WorldWest Limited Liability Company, a communications company formed by principals of The World Company, which owns the Journal-World.

More than 800 evacuees from the Rodeo-Chediski Fire staying in the Payson area finally got some good news Wednesday morning.

After days of watching helplessly as fire ravaged or threatened their homes, they listened eagerly as forest officials said 5 percent of the fire had been contained.

While the blaze has reached 375,000 acres and is still on the move, unexpected cloud cover slowed its progress Tuesday.

“(The clouds) were not predicted by the weather forecasters,” Tonto National Forest fire information officer Dave Killebrew told evacuees taking refuge at the Rim Country Middle School gym. “And even though the rain from them isn’t reaching the ground, they’re doing a tremendous job of keeping the fire from getting as hot as it could have been the last couple of days.”

While extreme fire behavior occurred in many areas, officials also reported significant progress in construction of a line along the fire’s eastern flank from above the Mogollon Rim to the junction of Hop Canyon and Highway 60.

“As thunder cells were developing overhead Tuesday, lines inserted the previous night were holding and keeping the fire from spreading eastward,” Killebrew said.

By Wednesday morning, the fire had burned to within a quarter-mile of the evacuated town of Show Low.

Now about the size of Los Angeles, the fire is growing in several directions. As it creeps dangerously close to Show Low, officials also are concerned about the nearby communities of Pinetop-Lakeside and Taylor.

Killebrew also said that a van tour of Pinedale was being organized for today so residents of that community could get back into the area to see whether their homes were still standing. Pinedale, where about 17 homes were destroyed last week, was one of the first communities the fire burned through.

Residents will not be allowed to stop at their homes, and a counselor will be on board each van.

So far forest officials have confirmed losses of 217 homes and six businesses, most in the communities of Heber and Overgaard. That figure is expected to go up as more areas are assessed, and hundreds of additional homes could be threatened depending on what the fire does next.

More than a thousand homes have been saved, however, and no homes have burned in the past two days.

Arson is suspected in the Rodeo Fire, which began June 18 about five miles northeast of Cibecue on White Mountain Apache tribal land.

The Chediski fire was started by a 31-year-old woman who was trying to attract the attention of a news helicopter covering the Rodeo fire. A combination of drought, high temperatures, gusting winds and flying embers escalated the two blazes at a rate of 5,000 acres per hour as they raced through ponderosa and pinyon pine, juniper and manzanita at the rate of 2 mph to 4 mph.

So far, more than 35,000 people have been evacuated from 10 towns, more than a third of the residents of Navajo County. The combined fire has become the nation’s No. 1 priority now that it has grown larger than the blazes in Colorado.

Payson Roundup reporter Jim Keyworth can be reached at (928) 474-5251.