Firesbeardown onariz.,n.m.
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Destructive Southwest fires have burned dozens of homes in northern Arizona and put numerous small villages in New Mexico in the path of danger, as wind-fueled flames chewed up wide swaths of tinder dry forest and grassland and towering plumes of smoke filled the sky.
Firefighters working to keep more homes from burning on the edge of a mountain town in northern Arizona were helped by scattered showers and cooler temperatures early Friday, but the favorable weather did not last and more gusts were expected to batter parts of Arizona and all of New Mexico through the weekend.
The wind howled across New Mexico on Friday afternoon, shrouding the Rio Grande Valley with a blanket of dust and pushing flames through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in the north. Fire officials expected one blaze burning northeast of Santa Fe to overrun several communities by the end of the day.
“With the dry conditions, high temperatures, extreme winds and limited suppression ability, the fire is traveling very quickly and it is imperative that residents comply with evacuation orders,” authorities said in a warning issued Friday afternoon.
Neighbors spent the night helping one another pack belongings and load their horses and other animals into trailers to escape approaching flames. The rural area is home to several hundred people, but many residences are unoccupied as families have yet to arrive for summer.
Lena Atencio and her husband, whose family has lived in the Rociada area for five generations, got out Friday as the winds kicked up. She said people were taking the threat seriously and there was a lot of traffic on roads overnight as people were evacuating.