Wildfire damages hundreds of structures in New Mexican village after residents flee

SANTA FE, N.M. — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham declared a state of emergency in southern New Mexico on Tuesday after wildfires destroyed or damaged hundreds of structures in the mountainous village of Ruidoso.

Ruidoso City Councilor Greg Cory said he learned during a Tuesday briefing by wildfire-incident commanders that 500 structures had been damaged. It was unclear how many homes were engulfed by the fast-moving flames in Ruidoso, a village of 7,000 residents. “As we were leaving, there were flames in front of me and to the side of me,” she said. “And all the animals were just running — charging — trying to get out.”

Jacquie and Ernie Escajeda were at church Monday in Ruidoso, located about 130 miles southeast of Albuquerque, when they heard about a fire in a nearby community about 20 miles away. They said they didn’t think much of it, but by mid-morning, smoke rose above a mountain behind their house and the smell filled the air. Air tankers were flying overhead, traffic picked up in the small village and the winds blew strongly through the trees.

“They lost their home,” she said. “There’s only one home standing in their whole little division that they live in, so there are a lot of structures lost. We have no idea if we’re going to have a home to go to.” Amid highway closures, many evacuees had little choice but to flee eastward onto the Great Plains and the city of Roswell, 75 miles away, where hotels and shelters quickly filled. A rural gas station along the evacuation route was overrun with people and cars.

New Mexico has grappled in recent years with a devastating series of wildfires, including a 2022 blaze caused by a pair of prescribed fires set by the U.S. Forest Service that merged during drought conditions to become the largest wildfire in the state's recorded history. That year, a separate fire consumed 200 homes in Ruidoso and resulted in two deaths.

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