A drought-driven wildfire in northern New Mexico exploded into a “megafire” of 100,000 acres, or 157 square miles, on Saturday and could still more than double in size, a fire official said.
—
Around 30 miles east of Santa Fe, the fire has destroyed hundreds of properties, triggered thousands of evacuations and on Saturday burned within a few miles of the city of Las Vegas, New Mexico, population 14,000. The blaze grew about 50% in 24 hours as a giant column of flame collapsed on Friday night, raining embers and starting new fires. Residents of Las Vegas awoke to pieces of charred wood the size of a US quarter coins carpeting the city.“It’s a big fire and it’s all around us,” San Miguel County Manager Joy Ansley said by phone, adding that authorities were making plans in case Las Vegas was told to evacuate.
Under the scenario of a two-degrees-Celsius rise in global temperatures, scientists expect US West wildfires to burn twice the area they do now by as early as mid-century.