The fire forced the evacuation of about 5,000 people in the community of Ruidoso, where the remains of a couple were found near a burned house earlier this week as they tried to escape. The fire caused by a demolished power line had burned about 9.4 square miles (24.3 square kilometers) of forest and grass since Friday morning, and strong winds that hit the area earlier this week left them behind. trees and power cords fell. The couple’s remains were found near their home on Wednesday afternoon, after family members informed Ruidoso police that they had tried to evacuate but were missing. Their identities have not been released. Fire crews on Thursday used a break in a steady stream of relentless gusts to advance against the blaze. The commander of the incident, Dave Bales, said that the strategy was “attack as much as we can”. However, winds in the fire zone, about 290km south of Albuquerque, were expected to intensify again on Friday. “We try to keep this fire as small as possible, especially because it is in the community,” he said. “We have lost a lot of construction, so our crews are right there in front of the fire and they are going as fast as possible.” Thousands of electricity customers lost power and Ruidoso schools remained closed until next week. The students were evacuated on Tuesday by buses with flames visible nearby. Helicopters pounded the flames on Thursday, and ground crews set up a series of firefighting lines to prevent the blaze from spreading to two fronts, while others extinguished flames in neighborhoods where the blaze broke out earlier in the week. Elsewhere in the United States, major wildfires were reported this week in Texas, Colorado and Oklahoma. The National Fire Department said Thursday that since the beginning of the year, 18,550 fires have burned about 1,250 square miles (3,237 square kilometers). This is much higher than the 10-year U.S. average of 12,290 wildfires and 835 square miles (2162.64 square miles) burned over the same period. Warmer and drier weather combined with decades of firefighting have helped increase the number of acres burned by the fires, say firefighters. The problem is exacerbated by a 20-year-long drought in the West that studies have linked to man-made climate change.
