Reuters
Published May 02, 2022 02:06PM ET
Updated May 03, 2022 04:31AM ET
By Andrew Hay and Adria Malcolm
LAS VEGAS, N.M. (Reuters) -Hundreds of households in the historic New Mexico city of Las Vegas were told to evacuate on Monday as fierce winds and drought pushed the largest active wildfire in the United States closer to town.
The blaze has scorched more than 121,000 acres (49,000 hectares), or more than half the area of New York City, tearing through centuries-old settlements and vacation homes in forested mountains 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of Santa Fe.
The fire is the most destructive of a dozen blazes in the Southwest that scientists say are more widespread and arriving earlier this year due to climate change.
In northwest Las Vegas, families packed trucks with boxes of photos and heirlooms and loaded livestock onto trailers, heeding police warnings for residents to get out of the area.
David Lopez, 31, chose to stay and defend his family's two trailer homes, wetting down the earth with a hose and raking away dead grass to create a fire break.
"This is all I have - I worked really hard for it," said the 31-year-old mechanic, who said he planned to flee once flames got within a quarter of a mile of him.
By late afternoon winds dropped, slowing the fire and preventing further evacuations in the city of 14,000.
"We didn't have that big hard push into Las Vegas proper," Incident Commander Dave Bales told a briefing.
Winds were forecast to shift to the north on Tuesday, pushing fire towards the villages of Mora and Cleveland at the top end of a 20-mile-long blaze already the third largest in New Mexico history.
But on Wednesday winds were expected to turn and blow the fire back towards Las Vegas, a pattern that would mostly prevail until Saturday.
"It's kind of a waiting game, we're at the mercy of the weather," said San Miguel County Manager Joy Ansley.
Burning since April 6, the fire has destroyed hundreds of properties and forced the evacuation of dozens of settlements, but there have been no reports of fatalities.
Written By: Reuters
Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.