ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Fire officials have lifted evacuations caused by two wildfires that have burned thousands of acres across central and southern New Mexico and forced people from their homes, a casino and a ranch for underprivileged children.
New Mexico Boys Ranch residents will be able to return at noon Tuesday, two days after a fire burning near the central New Mexico ranch led to Sunday’s evacuations of about 50 residents and staff.
The 2,700-acre fire was listed as 50 percent contained Tuesday morning.
Residents of the Ruidoso Downs area in southern New Mexico were allowed to return home Monday. They, too, were forced out Sunday by a wildfire that officials said burned five homes and seven outbuildings, damaged two other homes and two outbuildings and burned numerous vehicles.
Boys Ranch administrator Larry Couch has said heavy smoke forced out residents. Most of the ranch’s 25 young people went to their families or stayed with a counselor at a motel. About 18 staff members and their children also left the ranch along the Rio Grande near Belen, about 60 miles south of Albuquerque.
Crews were working on the flanks of the blaze as vegetation inside the fire lines continued to smolder, said fire information officer Vicky Fox.
No structures burned, she said.
The second fire, which has burned more than 10,000 acres near Ruidoso Downs, was 20 percent contained Tuesday.
That fire drove people out of several neighborhoods and the casino at Ruidoso Downs Racetrack and Casino and knocked out power to about 1,000 people around the resort area for a day. Barriers into the evacuated neighborhoods were lifted Monday afternoon.
The fire broke out Sunday in steep, rugged Gavilan Canyon and grew rapidly, pushed by winds estimated at 50 to 60 mph. As of Tuesday, it had burned nearly 16 square miles of grass, brush and pinon and juniper trees on private, state and federal land about 200 miles south of Albuquerque.
Lighter winds and cooler temperatures helped the battle Monday. Ground crews also got air support, with helicopters dropping large buckets of water and airplanes dropping fire-retardant slurry to help secure fire lines, fire information officer Jennifer Myslivy said.
A third fire that blackened about 2,000 acres of brush in the Uvas Valley in southwestern New Mexico along N.M. 26 did not burn any structures, fire officials said.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
Copyright © 2024 ToCasino.net Online Casino. All Rights Reserved. Designed by
Loading...
Comments