New Mexico governor declares emergency as thousands flee wildfires that have damaged 500 structures– Associated Press
Thousands of residents fled their homes as a wildfire swept into the mountain village of Ruidoso in southern New Mexico on Tuesday, destroying or damaging more than 500 structures, including an unknown number of homes.
The governor declared a county-wide state of emergency that extended to neighboring tribal lands and deployed National Guard troops after residents fled under evacuation orders Monday with little time to rescue belongings.
"The horrific South Fork Fire and Salt Fire have ravaged our lands and property, and forced thousands to flee their homes," Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said. "We are deploying every available resource to control these fires."
There have been no reports of any serious injuries, Lujan Grisham told reporters at a news conference in Santa Fe Tuesday afternoon.
But she said the magnitude of the fires is beyond local control and requires immediate state intervention to protect public health, safety and welfare.
More than 500 structures have been damaged and the entire village of Ruidoso, population 7,000, has been evacuated, she said. She said it's unclear how many homes were engulfed by the fast-moving flames because the extreme fire activity continues to prevent authorities from safely accessing the area to assess the damage.
"It's too dangerous," she said.
State Forester Laura McCarthy described the fires as "dangerous and fast moving" in strong winds up to 20 mph.
"Extreme fire behavior," she said. McCarthy said a cold front was moving into the area and should bring rain to the area by Wednesday or Thursday. But she said that was "both bad news and good news" because while the precipitation would be welcome, stronger winds would not.
The governor said her emergency declaration unlocks additional funding and resources to manage the crisis in Lincoln County and the Mescalero Apache Reservation. She said nearly 20,000 acres have been consumed, an area larger than 31 square miles.
"The fire is out of control, but I've heard of no injuries or fatalities," Ruidoso City Councilor Greg Cory said during a brief telephone interview from Clovis, New Mexico, where he and his wife and grandson arrived after driving about three hours Monday evening from Ruidoso.
They were among hundreds of Ruidoso residents who fled for their lives through traffic-clogged downtown streets in the normally pastoral vacation destination, as smoke darkened the evening sky and 100-foot flames climbed a ridgeline.
Christy Hood, a real estate agent in Ruidoso, said Monday's order to evacuate came so quickly that she and her husband, Richard, only had time to grab their 11-year-old son and 15-year-old daughter, and their two dogs.
"We don't have clothes or a toothbrush," she said. "We truly don't have anything."
Police were going up and down the streets telling people to drop everything and go, she said.
"As we were leaving, there were flames in front of me and to the side of me," she said. "And all the animals were just running — charging — trying to get out."
They headed out of Ruidoso, but heavy traffic turned what's normally a 15-minute drive into a harrowing two-hour ordeal.
"It looked like the sky was on fire. It was bright orange," she said. "Honestly, it looked like the apocalypse. It was terrifying and sparks were falling on us."
On social media posts, Ruidoso officials didn't mince words: "GO NOW: Do not attempt to gather belongings or protect your home. Evacuate immediately."
Jacquie and Ernie Escajeda were at church Monday in Ruidoso, located about 130 miles southeast of Albuquerque, when they heard about a fire in a nearby community about 20 miles away. They said they didn't think much of it, but by mid-morning, smoke rose above a mountain behind their house and the smell filled the air.
The couple started watching their cellphones and turned on the radio for updates. There was no "get ready," nor "get set" — it was just "go," Ernie Escajeda said. They grabbed legal documents and other belongings and headed out.
"Within an hour, the police department, the fire department, everybody's there blocking, barricading the roads to our area and telling everybody to leave," he said. "Thank God we were ready."
On Tuesday, the couple got a call from friends who are on vacation in Utah but have a home in Ruidoso that they've been told was destroyed, Jacquie Escajeda said.
"They lost their home," she said. "There's only one home standing in their whole little division that they live in, so there are a lot of structures lost. We have no idea if we're going to have a home to go to."
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.
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."
Amid highway closures, many evacuees had little choice but to flee eastward onto the Great Plains and the city of Roswell, 75 miles away, where hotels and shelters quickly filled. A rural gas station along the evacuation route was overrun with people and cars.
"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 nearby horse racing track at Ruidoso Downs said its facilities were safe, in a Tuesday morning post on social media, without responding to phone calls and messages. Beyond the track, animals and livestock were moved to the New Mexico State Fairgrounds in Roswell, including five horses that arrived Monday night, as well as four llamas, according to Leslie Robertson, the office manager.
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.
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.
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.
___
Associated Press writers Sarah Brumfield in Washington, D.C.; Felicia Fonseca in Flagstaff, Arizona; and Rio Yamat in Las Vegas; and Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada, contributed to this report.
New Mexico Animal Humane sends team to rescue pets in the South Fork and Salt fires– Mia Casas, KUNM
This morning, Animal Humane New Mexico in Albuquerque got a call from its Lincoln County location saying they needed help evacuating more than 70 cats and dogs due to the Salt and South Fork Fires.
Animal Humane New Mexico posted this on their Facebook page and staff were swiftly on their way in vans with their partners at Best Friends Animal Society to rescue as many pets as possible.
A little after 4 p.m. the Facebook page updated to say that the first round of rescues had successfully made it to the main shelter in Albuquerque.
Madison Beets, associate director of marketing with Animal Humane New Mexico says they now have 36 cats and 23 dogs from the first rescue.
Española Humane was also able to help by taking in 7 dogs.
You can visit Animal Humane New Mexico’s Facebook page for more updates on the rescues.
What's a heat dome? Here's why so much of the US is broiling this week– Associated Press
With much of the Midwest and the Northeast broiling — or about to broil — in extreme summer heat this week, meteorologists are talking about heat waves and heat domes.
Both mean it's really hot — and people will hear those terms a lot more as the world heats up. What's the difference?
Here's what to know:
What's a heat dome? It's helpful to think of a heat dome as what's happening in the atmosphere. A heat wave is how that affects people on the ground, said Ken Kunkel, a research professor of atmospheric sciences at North Carolina State University.
When a high-pressure system develops in the upper atmosphere, it causes the air below it to sink and compress. That raises temperatures in the lower atmosphere.
Because hot air expands, it creates a bulging dome.
The boundaries of this week's heat dome are not well-defined, Kunkel said, but the National Weather Service has said that the most extreme heat is expected in the Ohio Valley and the Northeast.
The eastern heat dome follows an earlier-than-usual one this month in the Southwest. Last year, there were 645 heat-related deaths in Phoenix.
What is a heat wave? A heat wave is defined by how intense the heat is, how long it lasts and where it occurs, said Jeff Masters, a meteorologist with Yale Climate Connections.
In general, several days of 90-plus degree temperatures in Texas are "no big deal," Masters said. But farther north, it is forecasted to be in the mid- to high-90s over the Midwest and Northeast this week, with heat indices of 100 F or greater.
"The population's just not conditioned to that sort of heat," he said.
The National Weather Service said that some areas likely will reach daily records, with the heat wave lasting all week and into the weekend in some places.
The combination of clear skies and the higher summertime angle of the sun can result in high heat index readings, a measure of temperature combined with humidity. Humidity makes the weather feel hotter because the body cools itself by sweating and has to work harder when the air's already moist.
The Detroit area will be in the mid-90s, with a heat index around 100 Fahrenheit in some urban areas for the next few days. The normal high temperature for this time of year in Detroit is in the low 80s. Specifically, June 18th's normal high is 81 F, meteorologist Brian Cromwell said.
Chicago broke a 1957 temperature record on Monday with a high of 97 degrees F. Hot and muggy conditions will continue this week, with peak heat indexes near 100 F, said the National Weather Service in Chicago.
In Cincinnati, Ohio, Tuesday's high will be around 96 F, but will feel like 104 F, according to the weather service. The high heat will continue through the weekend.
Albany, New York, will see temperatures of 95 F or hotter from Tuesday through Thursday, when it will peak at 97 F, with heat indexes at 100 F or more, the weather service forecasted. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Tuesday that she has activated the National Guard to assist in any heat emergencies.
The U.S. last year experienced the most heat waves since 1936, experts said. An Associated Press analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data found that the excessive heat contributed to more than 2,300 U.S. deaths, the highest number in 45 years of records.
Who's under the heat dome? The heat dome will affect a broad swath of the eastern half of the country, from roughly the Great Plains states up through Maine.
Some locations could see their hottest temperatures on record for any month, Masters said. A new study found that climate change is making giant heat waves move more slowly and affect more people for a longer time, with higher temperatures over larger areas.
Almost 77 million people in the United States were under extreme heat alerts Tuesday.
Another excessive heat warning, caused by a heat dome, is expected in the Phoenix area on Thursday and Friday, when the highs could reach 114 F and 116 F, respectively, said National Weather Service meteorologist Ted Whittock. Tuesday's forecasted high of 105 F , meanwhile, is normal for this time of year.
He said his office has issued two excessive heat warnings in the past few weeks because of higher-than-normal high pressure that created heat domes.
Southern New Mexico wildfire leads to evacuation of village of 7,000 — Associated Press
Residents of a village in southern New Mexico were ordered to flee their homes without taking time to grab any belongings due to a fast-moving wildfire.
"GO NOW: Do not attempt to gather belongings or protect your home. Evacuate immediately," officials with Ruidoso, a village home to 7,000 people, said on its website and in social media posts at about 7 p.m. Monday.
Public Service Company of New Mexico shut off power to part of the village due to the fire, which was estimated at about 8.2 square miles (21.2 square kilometers) with zero percent containment, the state Forestry Division said late Monday. The agency said multiple structures are under threat and a number have been lost. A portion of U.S. Highway 70 was closed south of the village.
"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."
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.
A second fire, called the Salt Fire, also was burning on the Mescalero reservation and southwest of Ruidoso. It was over 4.3 square miles (11 square kilometers) as of Monday night with no containment, the forestry division said.
The Village of Ruidoso is about 75 miles (121 kilometers) west of Roswell, where several evacuation centers were set up.
An air quality alert was issued for very unhealthy air in Ruidoso and surrounding areas due to smoke.