N.M. GOVERNOR URGES DISASTER DECLARATION

Hopes move will free up federal funds for fire recovery efforts

New Mexico’s governor on Tuesday asked President Joe Biden to declare a disaster as firefighters scrambled to clear brush, build fire lines and spray water to keep the largest blaze burning in the U.S. from destroying more homes in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

During a briefing on the fire burning across the state’s northeast, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a request for a presidential disaster declaration that will be sent to the White House in hopes of freeing up financial assistance for recovery efforts. She said it was important that the declaration be made on the front end rather than waiting until the fire is out.

“I’m unwilling to wait,” said Lujan Grisham, a firstterm Democrat who is running for re-election. “I have 6,000 people evacuated, I have families who don’t know what the next day looks like, I have families who are trying to navigate their children and health care 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 northeastern New Mexico city of Las Vegas, residents were already voicing concerns about grocery 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 147,840 acres of mountainsides, towering ponderosa pines and meadows.

Officials have reported about 170 homes destroyed, and said the state’s psychiatric hospital in Las Vegas remained evacuated. Schools in the community canceled classes at least through today.

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

“Tomorrow, we’re back to red-flag criteria,” Pearson said, adding that forecasts called for better firefighting conditions on Thursday and Friday before winds increase and gusts whip to 50 mph or more during the weekend.

Nationally, the National Interagency Fire Center reported Tuesday that a dozen uncontained large fires have burned about 256,000 acres in five states, including New Mexico. Nearly 3,500 wildland firefighters and support personnel are assigned to fires burning across the country.