Nearly 1,700 firefighters were battling the biggest blaze burning northeast of Santa Fe, New Mexico. It has charred more than 296 square miles, an area nearly the size of New York City.
The region's largest population center — Las Vegas, New Mexico, home to 13,000 people — was declared largely safe from being burned after firefighters mostly stopped the fire on that front. But thousands of people living in smaller, outlying communities were still under evacuation orders.
The aircraft are used to drop water directly on flames or lay retardant ahead of the blaze's expected direction so that bulldozers and ground crews can dig firebreaks in places where there are no roads that function as firebreaks. Authorities late Sunday told residents in small villages on the northern front of the fire to evacuate, saying it was approaching quickly after jumping a road.
That sort of scenario makes the smoke"so thick you can’t see, you can’t drive, you can’t see the engine ahead of you,” he said.
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