Two wildfires in Southern New Mexico that destroyed 1,400 structures, consumed over 20,000 acres and forced the evacuations of thousands of people were still burning out of control on Tuesday night as firefighters struggled to contain them, the authorities said.
At least one person has been killed in the fires since they began on Monday, said Michael Coleman, the communications director for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico. No additional details were available on Tuesday evening.
The larger blaze, the South Fork fire, was discovered around 9 a.m. on Monday morning in the Mescalero Apache tribal area and grew rapidly, showing “extreme fire behavior,” officials said.
The South Fork fire crossed from the Mescalero Apache Reservation to U.S. Forest Service land and private land. As of Tuesday evening, it had destroyed 1,400 structures and covered roughly 15,000 acres, the New Mexico State Forestry Division said in a statement.
A second blaze, the Salt Fire, was discovered a few miles away on Monday afternoon and was still exclusively on tribal land in mostly inaccessible mountain terrain on Tuesday, covering nearly 5,000 acres.
About 8,000 people had been evacuated from the village of Ruidoso and the surrounding area by Tuesday evening, the New Mexico State Forestry Division said.
Both fires were listed as being zero percent contained on Tuesday evening, and the authorities were investigating what had caused them.
But it was clear that the fires had been exacerbated by wind and low humidity, according to New Mexico Fire Information, a website run by federal and state agencies.
Federal, tribal, state and local departments were in an “all hands on deck situation,” said George Ducker, the communications coordinator of the New Mexico Forestry Division. He added that fire crews were focusing on protecting structures and building fire lines to keep the blazes from spreading.
The authorities said the fires were a case of “long-range spotting,” a process in which embers move out with the wind and sometimes ignite new fires. Mr. Ducker said that flames were reaching heights “in the hundreds of feet.”
“The heat in the interior is very, very hot,” he said.
Evacuees were heading east to Roswell, N.M. Some roads in other directions were closed because of the fires.
The Red Cross, which opened four shelter facilities in the state to help people fleeing the fires, said that as of Monday night it had assisted 270 residents.
Enrique Moreno, the founder and director of Roswell Community Disaster Relief, said that many of those fleeing Ruidoso had parked at a gas station, Wal-Mart or other retail parking lots around Roswell until shelters began opening late Monday. Together with Pecos Valley Public Services, Mr. Moreno’s group has been connecting evacuees with resources, including food and other supplies.
“This has been the biggest disaster we’ve had to deal with,” Mr. Moreno said.
On Tuesday, Governor Grisham declared a state of emergency in Lincoln County and the Mescalero Apache Reservation because of the fires. The declaration authorizes funding and resources to manage the crisis, she said in a post on social media.
Aimee Ortiz and Yan Zhuang contributed reporting.
