New Mexico Village Seeks Wildfire Recovery

TThe number of residents still missing has dropped significantly after thousands of people fled their homes as two fast-moving wildfires approached their southern New Mexico village, Ruidoso Mayor Lynn Crawford said Tuesday.

Search and rescue teams have cleared more properties in areas of Ruidoso, the mountain community hit hardest by the flames, and village officials and American Red Cross volunteers have been working through social media to list all those considered “safe.”

Only a few people remained listed Tuesday as missing. They include authorities with whom they have not yet contacted and from whom family and friends have not heard.

Crawford said during his regular radio address that he hoped to reduce the list to zero.

“We feel good that we’re reducing that number… but we need to be sure,” he said.

About 1,000 firefighters were assigned to the Ruidoso fires, while other crews were busy responding to reports of new fires in the region. In all, more than 100 new fires — most of them small — have been reported in New Mexico and Arizona over the past seven days, according to the Albuquerque-based multiagency Southwest Coordination Center.

Federal authorities have been working to speed up their response to large wildfires, starting with the deploying complex incident management teams when there are significant threats to homes and infrastructure. This was the case with the fires in Ruidoso, which has a permanent population of about 8,000 and can triple during the summer months when tourists arrive.

Across the country, more than a dozen large, uncontained fires are currently burning, according to the National Interagecy Fire Center. In addition to the South Fork and Salt fires in Ruidoso, complex incident management teams are assigned to fires in Washington and Colorado.

With more streets in Ruidoso being cleaned by the special teams and their search dogs, village authorities were able to open up more areas of the village on Tuesday. Some areas that have not yet been searched and places where post-fire flooding continues to be a concern have remained off limits.

Firefighters have been helped in recent days by rain, cooler temperatures and high humidity levels. They have been focusing on pockets of unburned fuel to ensure there are no outbreaks with drier weather forecast over the next two days.

The fires were first reported on June 17. Within hours, flames moved through dry parts of the Sacramento Mountains, from Mescalero Apache tribal land toward Ruidoso. Evacuation orders included thousands of homes, businesses and the Ruidoso Downs horse racing track, triggering traffic jams like people dropped everything and ran away.

About 40 square miles were charred before crews were able to bring the flames under control. At least two deaths have been confirmed and around 1,500 structures have been destroyed or damaged.

The FBI is investigating, offering up to $10,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the human-caused fires.