RUIDOSO: Residents of a village in the south New Mexico were ordered to flee their homes without taking time to collect their belongings due to rapid movement fires.
“LEAVE NOW: Don’t try to gather your belongings or protect your home. Clear out immediately,” officials in Ruidoso, a village home to 7,000 residents, said on its website and in social media posts around 7 p.m. Monday.
Public Service Company The province of New Mexico cut 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, a the state Division of Forestry announced Monday. The agency said several structures are threatened and a number have been lost. Part of US Highway 70 was closed south of the village.
“We were getting ready to have a meal and the alert went off: Evacuate now, don’t take anything and don’t plan to take anything, just evacuate,” Mary Lou Minic told KOB-TV. “And after three to five minutes we were in the car and leaving.”
THE South Fork Fire Operations began Monday on the Mescalero Apache reservation, where the tribal chairman issued an executive order declaring a state of emergency. It was burning on tribal and U.S. Forest Service lands in areas surrounding Ruidoso.
A second fire, called the Salt Fire, was also burning on the Mescalero Reservation and southwest of Ruidoso. It extended over 11 square kilometers on Monday evening without containment, the forest division said.
The village of Ruidoso is about 75 miles west of Roswell, where several evacuation Centers have been created.
An air quality alert has been issued for very unhealthy air in and around Ruidoso due to smoke.
“LEAVE NOW: Don’t try to gather your belongings or protect your home. Clear out immediately,” officials in Ruidoso, a village home to 7,000 residents, said on its website and in social media posts around 7 p.m. Monday.
Public Service Company The province of New Mexico cut 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, a the state Division of Forestry announced Monday. The agency said several structures are threatened and a number have been lost. Part of US Highway 70 was closed south of the village.
“We were getting ready to have a meal and the alert went off: Evacuate now, don’t take anything and don’t plan to take anything, just evacuate,” Mary Lou Minic told KOB-TV. “And after three to five minutes we were in the car and leaving.”
THE South Fork Fire Operations began Monday on the Mescalero Apache reservation, where the tribal chairman issued an executive order declaring a state of emergency. It was burning on tribal and U.S. Forest Service lands in areas surrounding Ruidoso.
A second fire, called the Salt Fire, was also burning on the Mescalero Reservation and southwest of Ruidoso. It extended over 11 square kilometers on Monday evening without containment, the forest division said.
The village of Ruidoso is about 75 miles west of Roswell, where several evacuation Centers have been created.
An air quality alert has been issued for very unhealthy air in and around Ruidoso due to smoke.
