Residents of the village of Ruidoso, New Mexico, were told to evacuate immediately Monday after a wildfire was discovered west of town that morning and had spread to more than 5,000 acres by the end of the day, according to authorities.
“IMMEDIATE MANDATORY EVACUATION ORDER FOR VILLAGE OF RUIDOSO. EVACUATE NOW!” the village government announced in capital letters on its Facebook page shortly before 7 p.m.
The South Fork Fire was discovered about 9 a.m. Monday on the Mescalero Reservation, west of the village of more than 7,000 people, and had grown to an estimated 5,252 acres by 11:30 p.m., according to the New Mexico Forestry Department.
“The fire is showing rapid growth and is experiencing intense fire behavior,” the fire department said. The blaze was 0% contained by late Monday.
Multiple evacuation orders were issued and town residents were instructed to leave immediately and warned not to pack valuables or attempt to protect their property.
The Red Cross set up emergency shelters for people fleeing their homes Tuesday morning, and highways 48 and 70 leading into town were closed.
No deaths had been reported as of Monday night. The government’s incident website said an unknown number of buildings had been lost, but several were at risk.
Mary Lou Minick knew there were fires in the area but didn’t know how serious the danger was. She’s among those now safe in a Roswell evacuation center Monday night.
“We were getting ready to eat and the alarm went off. ‘Evacuate now. Don’t take anything, don’t pack anything, just evacuate,'” Minich told Albuquerque NBC affiliate KOB. “And within three to five minutes we were in our car and we were on the road.”
Hot ash from the fire is falling on the town of Alto, north of Ruidoso, and a portion of U.S. Highway 70 near the reservation has been closed, according to Ruidoso city officials.
The Mescalero Conservancy is going door-to-door, urging residents in affected areas to evacuate immediately, and fire and vehicle restrictions and road closures are in place, the conservancy said on its website.
The Mescalero Apache Tribe opened a shelter at the Inn of the Mountain Gods Convention Center and said Tuesday it was encouraging all of the tribe’s non-essential employees to volunteer. It also offered to keep livestock at its rodeo center.
According to town officials, the power company PNM cut off power to parts of Ruidoso at the request of emergency responders.
An evacuation shelter was set up in a gymnasium at Eastern New Mexico University’s Roswell campus in Roswell, about 70 miles east of Ruidoso, and the nearby city of Alamogordo announced it was sending firefighters to help.
A webcam in midtown Ruidoso showed a red glow in the sky behind the town on Monday evening. By Tuesday morning, the glow was no longer visible, but the town was covered in thick smoke.
The Ruidoso, Alto, and Reservations are in the Sierra Blanca Mountains, about 130 miles southeast of Albuquerque.
The cause of the fire is currently under investigation.
The fires occurred at a time when “red flag” warnings were in effect for much of the southwestern US, including parts of New Mexico, due to fire danger caused by extremely dry air and winds.
A wildfire that has burned about 1,900 acres and forced emergency evacuations in Calaveras County, east of Stockton, California, also forced emergency evacuations on Monday.
About 5,000 people lost power because of the fire. Aerial footage showed planes dropping pink fire retardant in front of the blaze and a thick wall of smoke.
The so-called “Aero Fire” broke out around 3:20 p.m. near Aero Road and Hunt Road in Copperpolis, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).
Fixes (June 17, 2024, 10:56 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article incorrectly identified a fire burning on the Mescalero Reservation. This is the South Fork Fire, not the Salt Fork Fire.
