May has not yet brought better fire conditions to New Mexico.
The Hermits Peak and Calf Canyon fires, which merged over a week ago, have burned 103,908 acres of Sunday evening, according to an update from fire officials.
Over 1,000 personnel are working to minimize damage from the largest fire in the state, which currently sits at 30% containment.
Dave Bales, the incident commander with the Southwest Incident Area Team 2, noted that afternoon winds forced aviation support down by 3 pm. The wind is expected to continue into the evening, bucking the trend of calmer night conditions.
“You can see just how much the wind is affecting this fire with the fuels we have right now,” he said.
During the day, the fire made progress to the north, just west of Ledoux. Officials emphasized the work of their teams creating barriers between the fire and nearby communities, including around the southern edge of Mora, to protect structures.
Over the weekend, officials extended more evacuation orders in response to the fire’s significant growth of almost 30,000 acres since Friday. On Saturday, the previous incident commander, Carl Schwope, warned the fire could reach up to 200,000 acres before being contained.
Authorities ordered residents of north and south Mora to evacuate as the fire expanded to the north after another day of unfavorable conditions.
To the south, the areas of San Geronimo and Mineral Hill were given the green, “go” evacuation status, which indicates a full, mandatory evacuation.
Residents requested the status of when they could return to their homes in the comments section of the livestreamed Facebook update Sunday. Some residents have been evacuated multiple times since the Hermits Peak Fire started on April 6 after a prescribed burn escaped official’s control.
No areas within the City of Las Vegas have been ordered to evacuate, but officials warned residents to be ready for a mandatory evacuation in light of the unpredictable conditions.
A live, interactive map displaying evacuations provides the most up-to-date information to residents.
John Pendergrast, the air resource advisor, noted that for residents east of the fire the air quality would worsen on Monday due to the large footprint of the fires and the wind direction.
“If you need to do some shopping or things of that nature or take care of outdoor activities, I would suggest you try to take care of them this evening before nightfall. That’s probably going to be your best window in the next 24 hours,” Pendergrast said Sunday evening.
Officials noted that a lack of resources wasn’t to blame for the fire’s growth.
“As far as the resources that we have on scene and the resources we are ordering, we are getting those resources in,” said Todd Abel, the operations section chief. “The issue is the fuel moistures, the relative humidity, the wind.”
In response to the fires, the Santa Fe National Forest closed the entire Pecos/Las Vegas Ranger District to the public until the end of the year.