New Mexico wildfire rages through Native American reservation
Source: Reuters
New Mexico wildfire rages through Native American reservation
By Joseph Kolb
ALBUQUERQUE N.M. Tue Jun 17, 2014 3:02am EDT
(Reuters) - A wind-whipped wildfire on the Navajo Reservation in northwest New Mexico raged for a fourth day on Monday, forcing the evacuation of sheep-herding residents in the Chuska mountains, officials said, but no injuries were reported.
The blaze, nicknamed the Assayii Lake Fire, has so far burned up more than 11,000 acres (4,452 hectares) of land and remains uncontained despite the deployment of hundreds of firefighters and aerial sorties, said Jacey McCurtain, president of the Crystal Chapter on the Navajo Reservation.
Efforts to fight the blaze, which erupted on Friday and is thought to have been caused by people, have been hampered by low visibility and winds of up to 42 miles per hour (68 km per hour) which have pushed it beyond a ridgeline, McCurtain said.
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Authorities sought to "protect culturally significant lands and historic sites to preserve traditional values", said Bea Day a New Mexico fire official, adding that the blaze had affected some of the reservation's prime grazing land.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/17/us-usa-new-mexico-wildfires-idUSKBN0ES0IC20140617?rpc=401&feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews&rpc=401
lovemydog
(11,833 posts)soon!
malokvale77
(4,879 posts)FailureToCommunicate
(14,027 posts)returned from New Mexico and withnessed two large wildfires burning in the distance, and the awful reminants of fires from the last several years, one of which destroyed swaths of the forests surrounding the amazing Gila Cliff Dwellings
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