Wildfire In New Mexico City Forces Hundreds To Flee

Hundreds of households in the New Mexico city of Las Vegas have been asked to evacuate on Monday.

This is as intense winds and bone-dry conditions fueled a huge wildfire burning on the outskirts of town.

The wildfire had scorched more than 103,000 acres, or more than half the area of New York City, as of Monday morning, according to U.S. Forest Service officials in New Mexico.

It was added that it was 30% contained as of Monday as it burned drought-parched vegetation northwest of the city of 13,000 people.

The fire which is the largest active U.S. wildfire is the most destructive of a dozen blazes in the Southwest that scientists say are more widespread and arrived earlier this year due to climate change.

Jesus Romero, the deputy county manager of San Miguel County, told Reuters; "It is extremely smoked out here. Lots of smoke and falling ash."

"The winds are starting to pick up now and we are starting to get a lot more wind."

Burning since April 6, the fire has destroyed hundreds of properties and forced the evacuation of dozens of settlements in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.