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Residents of the mountain village of Ruidoso in southern New Mexico fled their homes under evacuation orders with little time to rescue belongings as fast-moving wildfires bore down on the village of 7,000 residents.
Traffic clogged downtown streets of the normally pastoral village and vacation destination for hours Monday as smoke darkened the evening sky and 100-foot flames climbed a ridgeline. By Tuesday morning, city webcams showed a deserted main street with smoke wafting in the sky.
"GO NOW: Do not attempt to gather belongings or protect your home. Evacuate immediately," officials with Ruidoso said on the village website and in social media posts.
FIREFIGHTERS MAKE PROGRESS AGAINST CALIFORNIA'S LARGEST WILDFIRE OF THE YEAR
Accountant Steve Jones said he and his wife evacuated overnight as emergency crews arrived at their doorstep and dense smoke filled the Ruidoso valley, making it difficult to breathe.
"We had a 40-mph wind that was taking this fire all along the ridge, we could literally see 100-foot flames," said Jones, who relocated in a camper. "That’s why it consumed so much acreage."
He said cellphone and internet service failed with the evacuation underway, while villagers tuned into AM radio for updates, packed up belongings and drove off from Ruidoso, which is about 130 miles southeast of Albuquerque.
"The traffic became bumper-to-bumper, slow-moving, and people’s nerves became a little jangled," he said.
Smoke from a wildfire rises over Ruidoso, N.M., Monday, June 17, 2024. Residents of the mountain village of about 7,000 residents fled their homes under evacuation orders with little time to rescue belongings. (Jacquie Escajeda via AP)
Public Service Company of New Mexico shut off power to part of the village due to the fire, which was estimated to be about 22 square miles with no containment, forestry and village officials said Tuesday morning. The state forestry division said multiple structures were threatened and a number have been lost. A portion of U.S. Highway 70 was closed south of the village.
Many evacuees had little choice but to flee eastward onto the Great Plains and the city of Roswell, 75 miles away, where hotels and shelter quickly filled.
"I want to guess there's at least 300 to 500 (families) at the shelters — the Walmart parking lot is packed with people in RVs," said Enrique Moreno, director of Roswell Community Disaster Relief. "Every single hotel in Roswell is filled to capacity right now. ... We go to the gas stations and we see just a bunch of people hanging around their cars."
New Mexico has grappled in recent years with a devastating series of wildfires, including a 2022 blaze caused by a pair of prescribed fires set by the U.S. Forest Service that merged during drought conditions to become the largest wildfire in the state's recorded history. That year, a separate fire consumed 200 homes in Ruidoso and resulted in two deaths.
On Tuesday, two fires menaced Ruidoso, a high-altitude vacation getaway nestled within the Lincoln National Forest near amenities including a casino, golf course and ski resort operated by the Mescalero Apache Tribe.
The South Fork Fire started Monday on the Mescalero Apache Reservation, where the tribal president issued an executive order declaring a state of emergency. It was burning on tribal and U.S. Forest Service land within areas surrounding Ruidoso. Wind-whipped flames advanced rapidly on Ruidoso.
"We were getting ready to sit down to a meal and the alert came on: Evacuate now, don’t take anything or plan to pack anything, just evacuate," Mary Lou Minic told KOB-TV. "And within three to five minutes, we were in the car, leaving."
A second fire, called the Salt Fire, also was burning on the Mescalero reservation and southwest of Ruidoso. It was over 7 square miles as of Tuesday morning with no containment, the forestry division said.
An air quality alert was issued for very unhealthy air in Ruidoso and surrounding areas due to smoke.
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In California, firefighters have increased their containment of a large wildfire that is burning in steep, hard-to-reach areas in mountains north of Los Angeles, officials said. But hot, dry, windy weather could challenge their efforts Tuesday.
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