Strong, swirling winds complicate New Mexico wildfire fight

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By CEDAR ATTANASIO and SCOTT SONNER

LAS VEGAS, N.M. (AP) — Strong, fast winds complicated work for firefighters in northeast New Mexico on Sunday as they battled two major blazes, though the rural area’s major population center appeared to finally be safe from the worst danger.

“It’s been a challenging day. The winds have picked up; they haven’t let up,” fire spokesperson Todd Abel said Sunday evening.

The rural area’s largest town — Las Vegas, New Mexico, population 13,000 — sits on the eastern edge of the fire area and appeared safe for now thanks to fire lines dug with bulldozers and other preparations over the past week. But the northern and southern edges of the blaze were still proving tricky for firefighters to contain, particularly given winds as fast as 50 miles per hour (80 kilometers per hour), Abel said.

The fire’s perimeter stretched more than 60 miles (96 kilometers) from Las Vegas, New Mexico, on the southeast flank to near Holbrook about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of the Colorado line. The National Interagency Fire Center said early Sunday that more than 20,000 structures remained threatened by the fire, which has destroyed about 300 residences over the last two weeks. The fire center said full containment wasn’t anticipated until the end of July.



A sunset seen through a wall of wildfire smoke from the Amtrak train station in Las Vegas, N.M., on Saturday, May 7, 2022. The Castañeda Hotel, right, hosted meals for residents and firefighters this week with sponsorships from restaurants and other businesses. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-fires-environment-new-mexico-las-vegas-4cf3dd4dc812e18e70448c72a29c7fd7

[bringthePaine]

1. anyone remember Morton Downey jr. pretending Nazis attacked him in a men's room?

[progree]

2. Am curious what this is about, and its relevance to this thread? Thx

Just curious, wondering if I'm missing something. I'm not trying to be "thread police", there's no rule that posts have to be relevant to the OP or to a post being replied to.

[Achilleaze]

3. no

[Rural_Progressive]

4. Containment not expected until the end of July?

That's being optimistic, by the beginning of August these fires are likely to have a lot more fires to connect with. As someone who has lived through a fair number of wildfires I don't see a good ending for the Southwest this fire season unless something completely unimaginable happens and they get a lot of moisture over an extended period. I fervently hope that happens.