Residents of the southern New Mexico village of Ruidoso were ordered to evacuate their homes Monday without time to gather any belongings due to a rapidly spreading wildfire.
“GO NOW: Do not attempt to gather belongings or protect your home. Evacuate immediately,” officials in Ruidoso, a village of 7,000 people, announced on their website and social media around 7 p.m.
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Traffic clogged the normally pastoral village’s downtown streets, a popular summer vacation spot, for hours Monday. Smoke darkened the evening sky, and 100-foot flames climbed a ridgeline. By Tuesday morning, city webcams showed a deserted main street with smoke still lingering in the air.
CBS Albuquerque affiliate KRQE-TV reported that Ruidoso officials said hot ash from the fire was falling in parts of the nearby community of Alto. People were asked to call 911 if they saw any hot ash spots or active flames.
“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.”
New Mexico wildfire map
Officials created a map to show where the South Fork Fire and the smaller Salt Fire were burning and which areas were at risk. 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 hard 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 to a camper. “That’s why it consumed so much acreage.”
He mentioned that cellphone and internet service failed during the evacuation, so villagers tuned into AM radio for updates, packed their belongings, and drove off from the town, 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 added.
The Public Service Company of New Mexico shut off electricity to part of the village due to the fire, which had grown to at least 1,280 acres when the evacuation was ordered, KOAT-TV reported. The utility cut power to about 2,000 homes and businesses.
State police in southern New Mexico reported phone outages that might impact emergency responses.
Ruidoso fire containment and pictures
As of Tuesday morning, officials reported that the South Fork Fire covered 13,921 acres and was zero percent contained. Multiple structures are under threat, and several have already been lost. A portion of U.S. Highway 70 was closed south of the village.
The glow from the fire was visible Monday night from a downtown webcam, where lights were still on.
The South Fork Fire began Monday on the Mescalero Apache Reservation, prompting the tribal president to issue an executive order declaring a state of emergency. It was burning on both tribal and U.S. Forest Service land in areas surrounding Ruidoso.
The Salt Fire was also burning on the Mescalero reservation and southwest of Ruidoso. As of Tuesday morning, it covered 4,876 acres with no containment, officials said.
