Wildfires burn out of control in New Mexico and Colorado

Ten air tankers and 400 firefighters were at the northern Colorado fire burning nearly 60 square miles in a mountainous area about 15 miles west of Fort Collins.

|
Ed Andrieski/AP
A helicopter flies through smoke after making a water drop on the High Park wildfire near Fort Collins, Colo., on June 11.

Firefighters battling an out-of-control Colorado blaze significantly increased the number of structures destroyed or damaged to at least 118 on Monday as crews in New Mexico also ramped up efforts against a large out-of-control blaze.

Colorado officials increased the damage estimate by 100 structures after crews got a better estimate of blackened areas where subdivisions once stood. Firefighters said they couldn't immediately say how many of the damaged structures were homes and how many were sheds, barns or other buildings.

The fire was first reported Saturday and comes as authorities say they're competing for resources that have been diluted by several wildfires across the West. The U.S. Forest Service added four tankers, including two from Canada, to its firefighting fleet last week following the crash of a tanker that killed two pilots at a southern Utah wildfire.

Ten air tankers and 400 firefighters were at the northern Colorado fire burning nearly 60 square miles in a mountainous area about 15 miles west of Fort Collins.

"Resources are thin right now," said Nick Christensen of the Larimer County Sheriff's Office. "We are trying to get more of everything at this point."

The wildfire west of Fort Collins has nearly doubled to 58 square miles, forcing hundreds of evacuations.

One person remains missing in the Colorado fire, which has spread smoke as far as central Nebraska, western Kansas and Texas.

In New Mexico, fire managers hoped to use a break in the weather to fight a 54-square-mile blaze near Ruidoso from the air. Winds grounded aircraft there Sunday. Residents in Ruidoso were told to prepare to evacuate if conditions worsen.

Hundreds of people have evacuated their homes and dozens of buildings have been destroyed as the fires spread rapidly, authorities said.

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez announced late Sunday that she was ordering an additional 100 National Guard troops to assist with evacuations. They will be dispatched to shelters or highways where people have to be turned back, Ruidoso spokeswoman Kerry Gladden said.

Military helicopters were also deployed to drop water at both fires in addition to air tankers dropping slurry.

Dan Ware, a spokesman for the New Mexico State Forestry Division, said the number of Ruidoso evacuees was in the hundreds, but he didn't have an exact figure. The nearby community of Capitan and others also could face evacuation, said Karen Takai, a spokeswoman for the Ruidoso fire crews.

"Any communities around this fire have the potential of being evacuated," she said. "If I lived in Capitan, I definitely would be prepared. Don't wait until the sheriff's office comes knocking at your door and tells you to evacuate."

Both fires were dwarfed by a massive blaze in southwest New Mexico — the largest in the state's history — that has charred 435 square miles of wilderness forest since mid-May. But the smaller blazes were especially concerning because they were closer to more populated areas.

Elsewhere Monday, firefighters battled a wildfire that blackened 6 square miles in Wyoming's Guernsey State Park and forced the evacuation of hundreds of campers and visitors. Authorities are warning the 70 people who live in Hartville to be ready to leave in an hour's notice.

Evacuation notices were sent in Colorado to nearly 1,800 phone numbers, but it wasn't clear how many residents had to leave. Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith said there was an unconfirmed report of a person unaccounted for, but he wouldn't elaborate.

Authorities said it was the worst fire in Larimer County in about 25 years.

Elaine Mantle and her family got a call to evacuate their Bellvue home early Sunday, their first evacuation in the 25 years that they have lived in the mountains. It took about 30 minutes for them to get out and reach a spillover shelter in Loveland.

"We're all here, we're all OK. Our neighbors are all here. We feel good," Mantle said.

Kathie Walter and her husband helped friends several miles away evacuate from the Colorado fire on Saturday. When they got home, they were surprised to get a call warning them to be ready to evacuate.

Walter didn't want to wait.

"Smoke was coming in hard. We could not see flames or orange or black smoke. But we didn't need to see anymore. We just said 'Hey, let's get out of here,'" she said.

They left with their five cats and two dogs, getting a head start. After a wildfire in the area last year, they left two suitcases packed in their garage.

The fire is the latest to hit Colorado's drought-stricken Front Range. In May, a fire set by a camper's stove charred 12 square miles in the same Poudre Canyon area. In March, a fire sparked by a prescribed burn 25 miles southwest of Denver killed three people and damaged or destroyed more than two dozen homes.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Wildfires burn out of control in New Mexico and Colorado
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0611/Wildfires-burn-out-of-control-in-New-Mexico-and-Colorado
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe