Tis the season…for extreme weather and nature conditions. The summer months are known for this and the first wildfires of the season struck today in New Mexico.
Over 150 homes have been evacuated and over 5,300 acres of forest destroyed since Thursday after a downed power line caused an uncontrollable wildfire according to Reuters. Still, on this Saturday night, zero percent of the blaze has been contained.
Officials are calling it The Tres Lagunas fire, the first major wildfire of the season in New Mexico. Almost 98 percent of New Mexico is currently experiencing the most historic drought since the 1950s, with extreme temperatures, dry conditions, and wind gusts up to 50 miles per hour, facilitating the flames that have spread through the steep mountainous terrain.
After a day of spreading, Governor Susana Matinez declared a state of emergency in San Miguel County on Friday. U.S. Forest Service fire information officer Iris Estes confirmed that close to 300 emergency personnel are on the scene and that the battle is going to be tough. Evacuations of homes, both residential and summer homes, as well as campgrounds, closed trailheads around Pecos, Las Vegas and Santa Fe are underway according to Yahoo News. These started just after the fire spread across Route 63, and the state highway was closed.
To add to the first fire, Dan Ware with New Mexico’s State Forestry agency announced that just east in Santa Fe a second blaze had begun Friday in the Santa Fe National Forest, and had encroached on the Valles Caldera National Preserve. This new, Thompson Ridge wildfire has burned over 635 acres and is also zero percent contained.
"It has been a slow start to the season, until this point," said State Forester Tony Delfin according to NPR. "Now we expect the conditions to go on until the monsoons come or the weather changes the pattern."