Fight against Arizona fire moves to New Mexico border
LUNA, N.M. – Crews battling a massive wildfire in eastern Arizona for two weeks shifted their focus Monday to New Mexico, where they lit fires to stifle flare-ups that skipped along treetops, threatening a small mountain town.
In the opposite corner of New Mexico, near the Colorado border, a wildfire that has forced hundreds of people from their homes more than doubled in size to an estimated 6,000 acres, after being fanned by high winds.
“We’re watching trees explode before our eyes. It’s horrendous,” said Barbara Riley, a schoolteacher and bed-and-breakfast owner in the northeastern New Mexico community of Raton.
A 20-mile section of the main north-south highway through New Mexico and Colorado remained closed due to the fire, causing hundreds of travelers to drive hours out of their way.
At the Wallow fire Monday in Arizona, crews worked furiously to protect the working-class mountain town of Luna, N.M., just across the border, after a successful weekend of no major fire growth.
At Luna Lake in Arizona, just a few miles from the town of Luna, a steady stream of helicopters collected water and flew west to attack flames sending up thick, gray smoke from the pines. Fire officials said the flare-up was in the tree crowns, an ominous sign that the fire was gaining, but it was still several miles from Luna.
Earlier Monday, Catron County Undersheriff Ian Fletcher said he had not ordered the 200 or so residents of Luna to leave, but had a plan in case it was needed.
The wildfire near the New Mexico-Colorado border started Sunday on the west side of Interstate 25 and jumped to the east side later that day. Between 800 and 1,000 people were asked overnight to leave their homes northeast of Raton.
The fire prompted the closure of I-25 from Trinidad, Colo., to Raton, sending summer motorists on lengthy detours.
The blaze more than doubled in size in a matter of hours Monday, to about 9 square miles, as crews worked to protect evacuated homes and businesses.