The rapid spread of the flames on Friday led to evacuation orders for areas along and near San Miguel County, including Big Pine, Gallinas, Lower Canyon Road, Trout Springs, Hot Springs and East and West Sapello, officials said.
Many counties in the county remained under evacuation orders Saturday, as were others in neighboring Mora, according to a press release from the San Miguel County and Las Vegas Emergency Management Bureau.
“This emerging situation remains extremely serious and refusing to evacuate could be a fatal decision,” officials said in a statement.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham also called on residents to heed evacuation orders, saying on Twitter, “Buildings can be replaced, but you can’t.” The flames spread Friday from “high wind speeds” in two directions: east to Las Vegas and south along Gallinas Gorge, according to the New Mexico Fire Information website. “We’ve been watching the fire for about a mile, about an hour,” said Jason Coyle, head of operations for the Southwest Regional Incident Management Team, during a briefing Saturday.
The Hot Springs area began evacuating on Friday afternoon as the flames approached, Coil said. The Mineral Hill area began to be evacuated around midnight, Coil said, as the southernmost part of the fire passed through previous containment lines.
The fire was about three-quarters of a mile from the nearest house on Mineral Hill during a briefing Saturday, Coil said.
On the east side of the fire, there was a new threat on Saturday for areas such as Las Toussaint, Manuelita and the Sapello area, Coyle added.
Fire conditions are also expected to worsen. While the northern part of the state was expected to escape strong winds on Saturday, stronger winds were expected to return on Sunday along with “more critical fire weather conditions,” the Albuquerque National Meteorological Service said.
More than 1,000 people have been battling the Calf Canyon and Hermits Peak fires, and officials are investigating what may have caused the blaze.
A little further north, the Cooks Peak Fire, which started about two weeks ago, is still burning.
The fire burned more than 56,000 acres and was brought under 56% control on Saturday morning, according to the fire information website. The fires are part of a series of devastating fires that have burned areas of the state in recent weeks. The state has seen fires burn more acres so far this year – more than 173,000 – than in seven of the past eight years, according to statistics from the Southwest Coordination Center.
And it could get worse. The peak of the fire season in New Mexico is only June, with the months that usually have the highest number of fires being June, May, July and April, respectively.
CNN’s Monica Garrett contributed to this report.
