Two spectacular fires forced at least 7,000 people to flee on Tuesday a mountainous region of New Mexico, in the southwest of the United States, where the fire destroyed more than 500 buildings.
• Read also: IN PICTURES | California suffers its largest fire of the year and fears a dangerous summer
These violent fires broke out Monday in a rural region of the state, about an hour and a half drive from the Mexican border. They notably surround Ruidoso, a village whose inhabitants were hastily evacuated.
“I urge residents of Ruidoso and surrounding areas to remain calm and follow official instructions to minimize risk,” state Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham said in declaring a state of emergency in the region.
By midday on Tuesday, the two fires had ravaged around 80 km2 and were completely out of control, according to the authorities.
The fire is “particularly violent” and spread quickly, according to the latest bulletin.
The situation is improving, but authorities fear that powerful winds will complicate the fight against these fires.
New Mexico has suffered for many years from persistent drought, worsened by global warming.
Elsewhere in the American West, California is suffering its largest fire of the year, in a rural region northwest of Los Angeles. The latter has ravaged more than 60 square kilometers of vegetation since Saturday, without causing evacuations. On Tuesday, it was only “24%” under control, according to firefighters.
This fire could be a foretaste of an intense fire season in California, after two particularly rainy years.
“For two years we have had very wet winters. This has the effect of growing a lot of grass. (…) But in summer, we don’t have any rain and the ground dries out,” Kenichi Haskett, spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Fire Department, told AFP.
Concerns accentuated by early heat waves this season in the American West.
At the beginning of June, seasonal temperature records were reached in this part of the country. The mercury notably reached 44°C in Las Vegas (Nevada) and 50°C in Death Valley (California), unprecedented levels for the end of spring.
According to scientists, these repeated heat waves are an unequivocal marker of global warming and are expected to multiply, last longer and intensify.
