- Title: Residents of New Mexico town prepare to evacuate amid wildfire
- Date: 2nd May 2022
- Summary: PENASCO, NEW MEXICO, UNITED STATES (MAY 1, 2022) (Reuters) (SOUNDBITE) (English) BARNEY TORRES, EVACUEE FROM CLEVELAND, NEW MEXICO, SAYING: "There's some bad winds coming up Wednesday (May 4) night, Thursday (May 5), really, really strong. So if they don't contain it by Wednesday, we're going to be in real trouble. So we're praying."
- Embargoed: 16th May 2022 01:41
- Keywords: CALF CANYON FIRE CLIMATE CHANGE DROUGHT EVACUATIONS NATURAL DISASTER WILDFIRE
- Location: LEDOUX, HOLMAN PENASCO, MORA VILLAGE AND MORA COUNTY, NEW MEXICO
- City: LEDOUX, HOLMAN PENASCO, MORA VILLAGE AND MORA COUNTY, NEW MEXICO
- Country: USA
- Topics: Disaster/Accidents,Fires,United States
- Reuters ID: LVA006515601052022RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Thousands of residents of a historic Old West town in New Mexico were told to prepare for possible evacuation on Sunday (May 1) as fierce winds drove the largest active U.S. wildfire through drought-parched forests.
People in the west of Las Vegas, New Mexico packed bags and kept family members close after the fire burned within 5 miles (8 km) of their homes near interstate highway 25, according to local officials and fire authorities.
Crews bulldozed firebreaks to the west and north of the city of 14,000 to protect ranches, rural houses and the United World College in the village of Montezuma, fire official Todd Abel told a briefing.
William Sandoval, a 40 year resident of Chacon, said the fire smoke was quickly enveloping the area around his house when authorities knocked on his door, telling him to evacuate.
"I got up in the morning at 6 and, at that time, the smoke was still miles away," Sandoval said, while holding his dog Copper at a high school gym converted into an evacuation center. "By 9 o'clock, 9:30, the smoke in the valley was so thick you needed a butter knife to cut through it. It came on really fast and, at that point, that's when the law enforcement came by to tell us to get out."
The Calf Canyon fire has so far burned 104,000 acres (42,100 hectares), an area nearly the size of Albuquerque, and is the largest of a dozen Southwest blazes that scientists have said are more widespread and arriving earlier this year due to climate change.
About 20 miles (32 km) north, crews fought to stop the blaze from burning homes near the village of Ledoux or moving further north into the Mora valley with other communities dating to Spanish colonial times, Abel said.
Barney Torres, from Cleveland, New Mexico, said he was sorry to leave behind his ranch but was hoping fire officials could get the blaze under control in the next few days.
"There's some bad winds coming up Wednesday (May 4) night, Thursday (May 5), really, really strong. So if they don't contain it by Wednesday, we're going to be in real trouble. So we're praying," he said.
Burning since April 6 around 30 miles (48 km) east of Santa Fe, the fire has destroyed more than 300 properties and forced the evacuation of dozens of villages and settlements in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
U.S. wildfires have burned more than twice as much land this year as in the same period of 2021, and about 70% more than the 10-year average, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
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