Hundreds of households in the historic New Mexico city of Las Vegas were told to evacuate on Monday as fierce winds and drought pushed the largest active wildfire in the United States closer to town.
The blaze has scorched more than 121,000 acres , or more than half the area of New York City, tearing through centuries-old settlements and vacation homes in forested mountains 30 miles northeast of Santa Fe.
David Lopez, 31, chose to stay and defend his family's two trailer homes, wetting down the earth with a hose and raking away dead grass to create a fire break. "We didn't have that big hard push into Las Vegas proper," Incident Commander Dave Bales told a briefing. But on Wednesday winds were expected to turn and blow the fire back towards Las Vegas, a pattern that would mostly prevail until Saturday.
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