New Mexico Wildfire: President Biden Approves Disaster Declaration

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.

U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez announced the presidential disaster declaration during an evening briefing by the U.S. Forest Service about efforts to contain the sprawling wildfire in northeastern New Mexico.

It has fanned out across 258 square miles (669 square kilometers) of high alpine forest and grasslands at the southern tip of the Rocky Mountains.

Fire bosses are seizing upon an interlude of relatively calm and cool weather to prevent the fire from pushing any closer to the small New Mexico city of Las Vegas and other villages scattered along the fire’s shifting fronts.

Airplanes and helicopters dropped slurries of red fire retardant from the sky, as ground crews cleared timber and brush to starve the fire along crucial fronts.

Bulldozers for days scraped fire lines on the outskirts of Las Vegas, population 13,000, while crews have conducted controlled burning to clear adjacent vegetation to prevent it from igniting.

Aircraft dropped more fire retardant as a second line of defense along a ridge just west of Las Vegas in preparation for intense winds expected over the weekend.

Nearly 1,300 firefighters and other personnel were assigned to the fire.

Mandatory evacuation orders have been issued for an estimated 15,500 homes in outlying areas and in the valleys of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains that border Las Vegas.

The tally of homes destroyed by the fire stands around 170 but could grow higher because officials have not been able to conduct assessment in all of the burn zones.