Wildfire set to become largest in US state’s history

Authorities are questioning two people about a campfire which may have started the blaze.

Fires have also risen elsewhere in New Mexico and at the state’s border with Colorado, where flames forced the closure of a busy interstate highway.

In the town of Luna, New Mexico, evacuation plans were yesterday in place for the roughly 200 residents. Crews have been working to protect the town for days, hacking down brush, using chainsaws to cut trees and setting small fires to burn anything the approaching flames could use as fuel.

“That’s what’s saved the town,” fire incident command spokesman Sean Johnson said.”

Fires have devoured hundreds of square miles in the American south-west and Texas since the wildfire season began several weeks ago.

Scant winter rain in Arizona, New Mexico, part of west Texas and southern Colorado is blamed on La Nina, a term describing cooler waters in the equatorial Pacific Ocean which stop the jet stream dipping down and bringing storms to the region. Those storms instead dropped their rain and snow further north.

The huge blaze in Arizona was made worse by the extremely thick forest, the result of a century of fire suppression which has let more trees grow in the world’s largest ponderosa pine forest. It has burned more than 733 square miles since May 29 and destroyed 32 homes and four rental cabins. It was 20 per cent contained as of last night, Mr Johnson said.

About 2,700 people who live in the Arizona resort communities of Alpine, Nutrioso and Greer remain under an evacuation order.

In New Mexico, near the Colorado border, a wildfire fanned by high winds has forced hundreds of people from their homes and grown to more than 38 square miles since it started on Sunday. The wildfires forced the closure of Interstate 25, sending summer motorists on lengthy detours.