A fire in New Mexico is believed to have killed two people after the couple’s remains were found near their charred home.
Police investigators and firefighters found the remains of the elderly couple on Wednesday afternoon after family members told police they had tried to evacuate but were unaccounted for.
The wildfire sparked expulsions of about 4,500 people and destroyed more than 200 homes at the end of a mountain community in the southern part of the state.
Kerry Gladden, a spokesman for Ruidoso police, said firefighters hoped to take advantage of the relentless winds’ break to deal with the deadly fire.
The remains of the couple were found near the house, but not in it, and no further information is immediately available, Gladon said. Authorities are working to verify the identities of the two.
The fire moved to a more densely populated area in northeastern Ruidoso on Wednesday afternoon, leading to new evacuations. Laura Rabon, a spokeswoman for Lincoln National Forest, interrupted a fire briefing and told people to get in their cars and leave after the flames crossed the road where crews were trying to hold the line.
During the night, crews prevented the flames from accumulating further in the village, Rabon said.
The fire burned about 9 square miles (23 square kilometers) of forest and grass, and strong winds that hit the area left behind downed trees and downed power lines. The teams continued to work on Thursday to restore power to parts of the village that have been without it since Monday.
As the cause of the fire was investigated, firefighters and forecasters warned that persistent dry and windy conditions had led to another day of red flag warnings for the eastern third of New Mexico and other parts of the southwest.
The commander of the incident, Dave Bales, said the strategy was “attack while we can”, noting that winds were expected to intensify on Thursday afternoon and again on Friday.
“We try to keep this fire as low as possible, especially because it’s in the community,” he said. “We had lost a lot of structures, so our crews are right there, at the front of the fire, moving as directly as possible.”
Six new major fires were reported Wednesday: three in Texas, two in Colorado and one in Oklahoma. In all, firefighters and support staff were trying to contain 11 major fires that burned more than 40 square miles (103 square kilometers) in five states.
The National Interdepartmental Fire Center said Thursday that 18,550 wildfires have burned about 1,250 square miles since the beginning of the year. That’s well above the 10-year average of 12,290 forest fires and 835 square miles burned.
Hotter and drier weather, combined with decades of firefighting, has helped increase the number of acres burned by forest fires, firefighters say. The problem is exacerbated by more than 20 years of western mega-drought, which studies have linked to man-made climate change.
Elsewhere in New Mexico, wildfires are burning northwest of Ruidoso, along the Rio Grande south of Albuquerque, in the mountains northwest of the Las Vegas community, and in pastures along the Pecos River near the city of Roswell.
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