Governor asks for aid as fire sweeps across New Mexico

NEW MEXICO’S governor has asked President Joe Biden, inset, to declare a disaster as firefighters scrambled to clear brush, build fire lines and spray water to keep the largest blaze burning in the US from destroying more homes in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

During a briefing on the fire burning across the state’s northeast, governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a request for a presidential disaster declaration that will be sent to the White House in the hope of freeing up financial assistance for recovery efforts.

She said it is important that the declaration be made now rather than waiting until the fire is out.

“I’m unwilling to wait,” said Ms Lujan Grisham, a first-term Democrat who is running for reelection.

“I have families who don’t know what the next day looks like, I have families who are trying to navigate their children and healthcare resources, figure out their livelihoods and they’re in every single little community and it must feel to them like they are out there on their own.”

In the small north-eastern New Mexico city of Las Vegas, residents were already voicing concerns about food stores being closed as some people chose to leave ahead of the flames even though evacuations had not been ordered. Fire managers told an evening briefing at the local community college that the spread slowed a bit on Tuesday, and put the amount of newly charred land up slightly, to about 231 square miles of mountainsides, towering ponderosa pines and meadows.

Officials have reported about 170 homes destroyed, about 15,500 homes under mandatory evacuation and said the state’s psychiatric hospital in Las Vegas remained evacuated. Schools in the community have cancelled classes.

Dan Pearson, a US Forest Service fire behaviour analyst, called Tuesday “a brief reprieve from the extreme conditions we have been experiencing”, but warned that winds are expected to increase and shift, pushing fire and smoke towards Las Vegas.

“Tomorrow, we’re back to redflag criteria,” Mr Pearson said, adding that better firefighting conditions were forecast before winds increase and gusts whip to 50mph or more during the weekend. Fire engines and their crews were busy working to protect homes and other structures on the edge of Las Vegas.