New Mexico village seeks to recover from wildfires

TThe number of residents still missing has dropped significantly after thousands of people fled their homes as two fast-moving wildfires approached their village in southern New Mexico, the mayor of Ruidoso said Tuesday. Lynn Crawford.

Search and rescue teams cleared more properties in areas of Ruidoso, the mountain community hardest hit by the flames, and village officials and American Red Cross volunteers worked on social media to list all those deemed “safe”.

Only a few people remained missing on the list on Tuesday. These include authorities he has not yet contacted and whose family and friends have not yet heard from.

Crawford said during his regular radio address that he hoped to bring the list down to zero.

“We are happy to have reduced that number… but we need to be sure,” he said.

About 1,000 firefighters were assigned to the Ruidoso fires, while other crews were busy responding to reports of new fires in the area. In total, more than 100 new fires – mostly small – have been reported in New Mexico and Arizona over the past seven days, according to the Albuquerque-based Southwest Multi-Agency Coordination Center.

Federal officials have worked to streamline their response to major wildfires, starting with the deployment of complex incident management teams when there are significant threats to homes and infrastructure. This was the case with the fires in Ruidoso, which has a permanent population of around 8,000 and can triple during the summer months when tourists flock.

Across the country, more than a dozen large, uncontrolled fires are currently burning, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. In addition to the South Fork and Salt fires in Ruidoso, complex incident management teams are assigned to fires in Washington state and Colorado.

As more Ruidoso streets were cleared by task forces and their search dogs, village officials were able to open more areas of the village Tuesday. Some areas that have not yet been searched and places where post-fire flooding remains a concern remained off-limits.

Firefighters have been aided in recent days by precipitation, cooler temperatures and high humidity levels. They focused on pockets of unburned fuel to ensure there were no flare-ups with drier weather expected over the next couple of days.

The fires were first reported on June 17. Within hours, flames spread across the driest parts of the Sacramento Mountains, from Mescalero Apache tribal lands toward Ruidoso. Evacuation orders affected thousands of homes, businesses and the Ruidoso Downs racetrack, causing traffic jams as people left everything and fled.

Around 40 square kilometers were charred before crews were able to bring the flames under control. At least two deaths have been confirmed and approximately 1,500 structures have been destroyed or damaged.

The FBI is investigating and offering up to $10,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the human-caused fires.