Thousands flee fast-spreading wildfire in New Mexico

The largest active wildfire in the US has forced thousands from their homes in New Mexico, as unusually fast-spreading blazes dot the drought-stricken southwest.

People have evacuated from the villages of Ledoux, Mora and Cleveland, located about 40 miles northeast of Santa Fe, to escape the Calf Canyon fire.

Fierce winds have blown embers beyond the fire, allowing it to breach containment lines set by about 1,000 firefighters backed by aircraft and bulldozers.

Officials in northern New Mexico urged people to flee.

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“This emerging situation remains extremely serious and refusal to evacuate could be a fatal decision,” said the office of emergency management of San Miguel county.

The Calf Canyon fire, which surpassed 100,000 acres on Sunday, is the largest of about a dozen major fires in the southwest spurred by strong winds and parched conditions.

Scientists say the climate crisis is turning wildfires into a year-round risk for much of the US west, with high temperatures drying out soils and turning vegetation into kindling.

More than a million acres have already burned across the US since the start of this year, more than double the total for the same period last year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC).

“Climate change is taking a situation that would be bad for us normally,” said Gregg Garfin, a climatologist at the University of Arizona, “and turning the dial up.”

Advancing

In New Mexico, the Calf Canyon fire was advancing at a rate close to a mile every hour on Friday, due to strong winds, before slowing slightly over the weekend.

The conflagration started on April 6th when a prescribed burn set by firefighters to clear out small trees and brush that can fuel fires spun out of control. The blaze merged with another fire a week ago.

Residents of Las Vegas, New Mexico were among those told to prepare for evacuation as the wildfire moved within a few miles of the town.

Samuel Coca, general manager of a bar in the town’s Castaneda hotel, told the New York Times he had packed his belongings in case he and his family needed to flee and had also met others who had to leave more quickly.

“The first dozen people I spoke with lost everything,” Coca said. “They lost their houses, their ranches, some livestock. It was hard to get through the afternoon without crying.”

– Guardian