Costs of N.M. wildfire reach $65M
Windy conditions hamper crew’s efforts
Many homes near America’s largest wildfire survived the latest barrage of howling winds and erratic flames, but New Mexico’s governor said Tuesday the risk of more destruction is high and that the longterm costs of recovering from the massive blaze will soar.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said during a briefing that she has not received any reports in recent days of widespread damage to homes amid the latest round of fierce winds that fanned the blaze and created challenges for firefighting crews.
Crews have been trying to direct flames around homes in numerous small villages on the northern and southern ends of the fire — bulldozing firebreaks, putting up sprinklers, clearing trees and raking pine needles. A force of nearly 1,800 firefighters and support personnel are assigned to the blaze, including specially trained teams.
The cost of fighting the blaze and another smaller fire burning near Los Alamos National Laboratory has topped $65 million.
The cost is expected to grow with wind predicted through Wednesday, and Lujan Grisham said the cost to reconstruct homes, prevent postfire flooding and restore the forest charred by the larger fire after it is out will likely reach billions of dollars.
“When you think about rebuilding communities, it is not an overnight process,” Lujan Grisham said. “So we should be thinking in terms of significant resources and those resources in my view should largely be borne by the federal government given the situation.”
The nearly 320-square-mile wildfire has burned about 300 structures, including homes, since it started last month. Some areas remain under evacuation orders, but authorities on Monday started letting some residents on the fire’s eastern flank return home.
A federal disaster already has been declared due to the blaze, which is partly the result of a preventative fire set in early April that escaped containment. The flames merged with a separate fire a couple of weeks later, and as of Tuesday the jagged perimeter stretched more than 356 miles.