A wildfire near a small northeastern New Mexico community is expected to keep growing, but authorities were encouraged by a forecast for Tuesday of improving humidity and shifting winds.
Chris Castillo throws a freshly-cut log as he and his cousins clear a wireline along a family member's home in Las Vegas, N.M., Monday, May 2, 2022. Wind-whipped flames are marching across more of New Mexico's tinder-dry mountainsides, forcing the evacuation of area residents and dozens of patients from the state's psychiatric hospital as firefighters scramble to keep new wildfires from growing.
“It’s awful. It scares you,” Crespin said as she was being driven away from her hometown. “You don’t know when it’s going to get to the houses.” The fire in northeastern New Mexico ballooned in size Sunday, prompting authorities to issue new evacuation orders for the small town of Mora and other villages.Residents in some outlying neighborhoods of the town of Las Vegas were told to be ready to leave their homes as smoke choked the economic hub for the farming and ranching families who have lived for generations in the rural region. No evacuations had been ordered within the city as of Monday evening.
The county jail, the state’s psychiatric hospital and more than 200 students from the United World College have evacuated and businesses that remained open were having a hard time finding workers as more people were forced from their homes.“We’re trying to house and feed people with skeleton crews. Hundreds of people have lost their homes. It’s an extraordinary tragedy,” said Allan Affeldt, a hotelier in Las Vegas.
It merged last week with another blaze that was sparked in early April when a prescribed fire set by land managers to reduce fire danger escaped containment. The cause of the other fire remains under investigation.
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