29 People Are Missing After Residents of a New Mexico Town That Was Destroyed by Fire Were Allowed to Return
People who lived in the New Mexico town of Ruidoso had to leave their homes completely last week because of two fast-moving wildfires. On Monday, they were allowed to go back to see if their houses were still standing.
New Mexico State Police have confirmed that two people have died in the South Fork and Salt fires. The town has said that “possible additional fatalities have been identified.”
On Monday, Mayor Lynn Crawford said on her weekly radio show that 29 people have not been found.
Crawford said that searchers were going into “exclusion zones,” which are places where homes have burned down or been badly damaged, and asking people to come forward.
According to Crawford, the mayor of the about 7,700-person town, “that means there is so much damage that there could be victims in there.” “There are still 29 people we need.”
He said that search and rescue teams use dogs and go from “property to property.”
Crawford said that people who live in those cutoff zones and think they might be one of the 29 people who are missing but don’t know it should call the emergency operations center “and just say you’re checking in.”
June 17 saw the start of the South Fork and Salt fires on the Mescalero Apache Reservation. The South Fork Fire spread east toward Ruidoso and to the north of the town.
The Salt Fire burned east and south of Ruidoso, forcing the people of Ruidoso Downs, a town of about 2,600 people, to leave their homes.
The New Mexico Forestry Division said that by Monday, the South Fork Fire had burned about 17,551 acres and was 37% controlled. The Salt Fire had burned about 7,816 acres and was only 7% controlled.
Damage has been done to about 1,400 buildings. New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said last week that about 500 homes have been damaged.
David Solas was getting ready to go into the Ruidoso area, but he didn’t know what they would find.
“I’m afraid to go back, and I don’t know what it will look like,” Solas told Albuquerque’s NBC station KOB.
The weather has changed, which has helped firemen fight the fire, but the rain has raised the risk of flooding. In a report, the state’s Forestry Division said the fire “has reduced to smoldering and creeping in heavy duff and dead/down fuels.” However, they warned that the fire could get worse in some places as the weather gets warmer.
Crawford, the mayor of Ruidoso, asked people who have second homes in the area to please wait a few days so that people who live there full-time could go in first.
“We have people who live here full-time.” That was where they lived. “This was their kids’ school, you know,” Crawford said. “Then those people should come in first, because we’re going to be full soon.”
A reason for the fires is being looked into. The FBI has said that they will pay $10,000 for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or people who set the fires.
Crawford said that the government wanted to make sure that correct information was being sent.
“When you are in a hurry to get something out there, you might make a mistake.” For instance, there have been two deaths instead of three, even though we were told there would be three, Crawford said. “Great news! Let’s keep it at two.”
Source: NBC