NEW HARMONY, Utah (AP) – Relieved residents of a southwest Utah community that was nearly consumed by a wildfire have returned to their homes, while concern in Arizona shifted to two mountain communities.

“God was looking out for us. Our property was unharmed,” said Emily Jones, whose home was within 50 feet of the fire.

Elsewhere in the Southwest, a blaze in rugged central Arizona had grown to 152,000 acres Wednesday and concern shifted to a pair of communities surrounded by pine forest that could be threatened.

High wind pushed a 12,000-acre the blaze toward a development just south of New Harmony late Monday, and officials ordered the evacuation of about 1,200 residents. Officials believe only about 80 families actually left, said Bureau of Land Management spokesman David Boyd.

Firefighters got unexpected help when the wind calmed, and the evacuation order was lifted Tuesday.

Linda and Jack Reed said they “were amazingly lucky” to find their home intact Tuesday.

“When we left here, there was a wall of fire at the end of the neighborhood. I’ve never seen or heard anything like it,” Linda Reed said.

Arizona’s biggest fire, in rugged canyons north of Phoenix, had grown by more than 10,000 acres overnight and was expected to continue spreading through grass and desert brush. The lightning-sparked blaze was about 20 percent contained early Wednesday, down from 25 on Tuesday, fire officials said.

No evacuations had been ordered, but authorities said that if the fire crosses the Verde River, it could race into the towns of Pine and Strawberry, which have numerous vacation homes set in pine forest but less than 5,000 year-round residents.

The fire was still 20 miles southwest of Pine and Strawberry and 12 miles from the point where evacuations may be considered necessary, said Tom Berglund, a spokesman for the firefighters.

The blaze began June 21 as two lightning-started fires and destroyed 11 homes near Cave Creek, just north of Phoenix. The fire may have dealt a fatal blow to the world’s largest saguaro cactus, which could be two centuries old.

The 46-foot Grand One, recognized in the National Register of Big Trees for its height, mass of limbs and a base circumference of nearly 8 feet, was scorched. “As much as I’d like to be optimistic, I’m not,” said Tonto National Forest spokeswoman Emily Garber about the saguaro’s survival.

The National Interagency Fire Center said Tuesday that 21 active large fires had burned more than 769,000 acres in Alaska, Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.

In southern Nevada, firefighters dug in as a buffer narrowed to four miles between the railroad town of Caliente and two huge wildfires in an uninhabited desert area. More than 950 firefighters were battling the 402,000-acre fire complex.

“It’s not going to get here,” Forest Service incident commander Tom Suwyn assured residents at a Tuesday night meeting.

David Chevalier, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman, said some firefighters reported seeing federally protected desert tortoises that survived flames sweeping through grass, sage, mesquite and Joshua trees.