Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Firefighters tackle nation’s largest blaze
Over 1,000 firefighters backed by bulldozers and aircraft battled the largest active wildfire in the U.S. on Saturday after strong winds pushed it across some containment lines and closer to a small city in northern New Mexico.
Preliminary overnight mapping imagery indicated that the fire grew from 103 square miles Friday to 152 square miles by early Saturday, officials said.
Calmer winds on Saturday were aiding the firefighting effort after gusts accelerated the fire’s advance to a point on Friday when “we were watching the fire march about a mile every hour,” said Jayson Coil, a fire operations official.
But more extreme fire danger was forecast for today for parts of New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and Colorado, according to the National Weather Service.
The fire as Saturday was contained around about a third of its larger perimeter, down a little from Thursday.
With the fire’s recent growth, estimates of people forced to evacuate largely rural areas plus a subdivision near Las Vegas doubled from 1,500 to 2,000 people to between 3,000 and 4,000, said Jesus Romero, the assistant manager for San Miguel County.
Officials have said the fire has destroyed 277 structures, including at least 166 homes.
Wildfires were also still burning Saturday elsewhere in New Mexico and Arizona.
In northern Arizona, a top-level national wildfire management team turned oversight of fighting a 30 square-mile blaze that destroyed at least 30 homes near Flagstaff and forced hundreds to evacuate back to local firefighting forces on Friday.