Emergency personnel are preparing for what is expected to be several days of high temperatures and strong winds as they continue to fight wildfires across New Mexico.
The Hermit’s Peak-Calf Canyon fire near Las Vegas has now burned over 168-thousand acres and is still only about 20-percent contained.
Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham says the fear is the conditions will become extremely dangerous over the weekend.
“The prediction is at about 11am tomorrow, for about one hundred straight hours, we will have high temperatures, and extreme winds,” she said. “This is the worst possible set of conditions for any fire, I repeat, the worst possible conditions.”
Over 13-hundred personnel are working on the Hermits Peak- Calf Canyon fire. Lujan Grisham says firefighters are now working on containment lines in hopes the blaze falls back upon itself towards areas already burned.
She says people still in locations in and around evacuation areas need to take heed because conditions could quickly turn making evacuation or rescue impossible.
FEMA is now on the ground in the state. Officials are asking who may be affected by the wildfires to register with the agency at the disaster assistance website or by calling 1-800-621-3362.