New Mexico

Weather conditions described as potentially historic were on tap for New Mexico on Saturday and for the next several days as hundreds of firefighters and a fleet of airplanes and helicopters worked feverishly to bolster lines around the largest fire burning in the U.S.

Many families already have been left homeless and thousands of residents have evacuated due to flames that have charred large swaths of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in northeastern New Mexico.

LAS VEGAS, N.M. (AP) — Firefighters slowed the advance of the largest wildfire in the U.S. as heavy winds relented Wednesday, while President Joe Biden approved a disaster declaration that brings new financial resources to remote stretches of New Mexico devastated by fire since early April.

LAS VEGAS, N.M. (AP) — Firefighters slowed the advance of the largest wildfire in the U.S. as heavy winds relented Wednesday, while President Joe Biden approved a disaster declaration that brings new financial resources to remote stretches of New Mexico devastated by fire since early April.

LAS VEGAS, N.M. (AP) — Martina Gonzales and her grandson watched from their front yard as aircraft disappeared into a giant plume of smoke to fight a growing wildfire that has burned hundreds of square miles, destroyed about 170 homes and threatens more destruction if weekend winds whip, as predicted, through the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

“My grandson has actually, um, been a little bit scared, nervous,” Gonzales said Tuesday — the day New Mexico’s governor asked President Joe Biden to declare a disaster so federal aid can come for the largest blaze burning in the U.S.

LAS VEGAS, N.M. (AP) — Wind-whipped flames raced across more of New Mexico’s pine-covered mountainsides on Monday, closing in on a town of 13,000 people where some residents hurried to pack their cars with belongings, others hustled to clear brush from around their homes, and police were called in to help evacuate the state’s psychiatric hospital.

SANTA FE (New Mexico, US), May 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A drought-driven wildfire in northern New Mexico exploded into a “megafire” of 100,000 acres, or 157 square miles, on Saturday and could still more than double in size, a fire official said.

Fueled by ferocious spring winds in parched mountain forests, the Calf Canyon fire is by far the largest and most destructive currently burning in the United States.

(AP) --- Douglas Siddens’ mother was among those who made it out with just the clothes on her back when a deadly, wind-fueled wildfire ripped through a mountain community in southern New Mexico.

The RV park where she lived was reduced to “metal frame rails and steel wheels,” said Siddens, who managed the site

“I had like 10 people displaced. They lost their homes and everything, including my mom,” he said.

(AP) --- Firefighters scouted the drought-stricken mountainsides around a New Mexico village as they looked for opportunities to slow a wind-driven wildfire that a day earlier had burned at least 150 homes and other structures while displacing thousands of residents and forcing the evacuation of two schools.

HOBBS, N.M. (AP) — The investigation into this week’s fiery head-on crash in West Texas now focuses on the revelation that a 13-year-old was driving the pickup truck that struck a van, killing nine people, including six members of a college golf team and their coach.

The young teen, who is still unidentified, and a man traveling in the truck also died.

National Transportation Safety Board Vice Chairman Bruce Landsberg on Thursday revealed the truck was driven by the child. He said the truck’s left front tire, which was a spare tire, blew out before impact.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham took another step Thursday to put New Mexico on the hydrogen map, signing an executive order she said will help establish a roadmap making clear that hydrogen will be a key focus of the state as it works to transform its energy economy.

The Democratic governor said she hopes the order will provide predictability for businesses and hopefully result in more of them choosing to relocate to New Mexico.