By Andrew Hay

MORA (N.M.) – Thousands evacuated their mountain communities in northern New Mexico on Friday, as the worst wildfires in America swept dangerously close to them.

Near Santa Fe, 35 miles (56 km) north, the Calf Canyon fire lit up forest. High winds blow embers more than a mile and spread a wildfire which has burned approximately 66,000 acres or 103 miles of Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

David Montoya was standing at the Mora County Fire Department, ready to light “spot fires”, as embers hit parched valley fields.

Julie Finley was a couple miles north of Mora at an elevation of 7,172 feet. She feared the winds would shift and propel the fire into the farm settlement that dates back to 1800.

Finley said, “It feels as if your entire world is collapsing.” She chose Finley’s grandson’s picture to be one of the items she would take as she fled. “We’ve seen friends lose so much.”

This blaze was the most devastating of the dozens of wildfires which have erupted in the U.S. Southwest during this spring. This is a normal season where blazes are rare. Scientists say this year’s wildfires started earlier than normal due to climate change.

Max Trujillo from San Miguel County, California interrupted the music at KBQL in an effort to exhort residents to evacuate if necessary.

Trujillo declared that “Today’s about survival” when referring to the fire that destroyed 166 houses, but did not claim any lives.

Stewart Turner, an analyst in fire behavior, said extreme drought has reduced humidity to logs and branches of 8%. That’s less than the timber that is used to build homes. It turned forested mountain and valleys into potential tinderboxes.

The U.S. Forest Service is the agency that manages large areas of this area. Residents are furious at its inability to trim trees and allow the locals access to the forest, which can be congested and fire-prone.

Skip Finley, a furniture restoration specialist, said that “they’ve got to get it cleaned out or else we’re dead” before he left his Mora 1905 turquoise-andcream territorial-style residence.