Entire New Mexico village evacuates as a pair of fires converges on it ‘like a pair of tongs,’ official says

A pair of fast-growing fires are converging on a New Mexico village “like a pair of tongs” Monday evening, prompting thousands of residents and nearby tribal communities to evacuate.

A pair of fast-growing fires are tearing across a south New Mexico tribal reservation and converging on a village “like a pair of tongs,” prompting thousands of residents to evacuate, officials say. A wall of smoke filled the sky over the village of Ruidoso Monday evening as a line of cars snaked out of the community. An estimated 5,000 residents were ordered to evacuate the village area due to the approaching South Fork Fire, New Mexico Forestry spokesperson George Ducker told CNN. The South Fork Fire ignited Monday morning on Mescalero Apache tribal land and had exploded to at least 3,000 acres by nightfall, Ducker said. A second blaze, the Salt Fire, is also burning on tribal land south of Ruidoso and has scorched 2,000 acres. Both fires are acting like “a pair of tongs, and Ruidoso is in the middle,” Ducker said. Multiple structures have been destroyed, he added, though the extent of the damage is still unclear. Evacuation orders are also in place in parts of the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation, which sits just south of Ruidoso, including the areas of Snow Springs, Fence Canyon, Whitetail, Chihuahua Well, Fantasy Lane, Summit area, and Botella Road, the tribe said. New Mexico State Police said first responders are grappling with phone outages in the agency’s southern communications center, possibly hindering their ability to respond to 911 calls.