Evacuees settle in at the Eastern New Mexico University gymnasium Tuesday, June 18, 2024 after evacuating the Ruidoso area because of the South Fork and Salt fires. (Leah Romero / Source NM)
When KC Counts left her cabin in Ruidoso on Tuesday, she saw smoke from a new fire start. About three hours later she made it home to El Paso, and learned the village where she just made memories at a family reunion was now in flames.
Counts said she and 52 other family members converged in Ruidoso over the weekend for their 56th annual reunion. She was one of the last to leave their rented cabins Monday at about 12:30 p.m. when she saw the first signs of the South Fork Fire burning on the nearby Mescalero Apache Reservation.
“And when I pulled out of the cabins I could see that fire, the South Fork Fire, tiny,” she said. “And there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.”
She called the quickly shifting scenery “unsettling.”
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Tom and Emma Lou Griffin, 87 and 88, evacuated their home for the first time in the 28 years the couple has lived in Ruidoso.
Other fires in the past have put the Griffin’s on notice to leave, but the South Fork Fire grew so close to the village that it took less than five hours for the evacuation to be mandatory.
Tom Griffin said he noticed the wildfire smoke around 1:30 p.m. when he was shopping at the Ruidoso Walmart.
“I was facing towards the mountain and I saw all this smoke coming up. And I’ve seen enough fires that I can tell that this is brand new smoke or old smoke, and it was brand new,” he said.
They heard about evacuations for the rest of Monday afternoon. It wasn’t until they finished dinner at about 6:15 p.m. that the entire village was ordered to evacuate.
Tom and Emma Lou Griffin bide their time in the Eastern New Mexico University gymnasium Tuesday, June 18, 2024 after evacuating Ruidoso because of the South Fork Fire. (Leah Romero / Source NM)
Griffin relied on his instincts and drove his usual route down Paradise Canyon Drive to leave Ruidoso.
The direction added hours to their escape.
“A trip that maybe takes an hour and 15, at the most an hour and a half, took four hours,” he said.
He added that traffic was “basically” bumper to bumper once they were outside Ruidoso.
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The couple ended up at the Eastern New Mexico University gymnasium in Roswell late Monday night. Emma Lou Griffin said because US 70 was closed they couldn’t make it to Alamogordo, so Roswell was the only place for them to go after evacuating.
They said they spoke with the Ruidoso mayor Tuesday morning and saw photos of village neighborhoods, and at that point their home had been spared.
Until they’re able to return, they said they plan to remain at the ENMU shelter set up by the American Red Cross.
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People, donations and clean beds filled the Eastern New Mexico University-Roswell shelter Tuesday afternoon.
Martha Staab, a spokesperson for the satellite campus, explained that the shelter was set up in the gymnasium around 8 p.m. Monday. Families were brought in an hour later. The doors stayed open until midnight.
Some people used the shelter to recollect for the night, sometimes briefly, and move on to their next destination Staab said.
Here are some NM charities supporting those displaced by the South Fork and Salt Fires
Some people, like the Griffins, remained.
“We did have a lot of people from Texas (Tuesday) morning, but I feel like once they were evacuated they stopped here and then they eventually, I guess they just went home because they were vacationing in Ruidoso,” Staab said.
She estimated about 200 people stopped at the shelter Monday night, and an additional 100 people were helped by their count by Tuesday evening.
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Bobby Nash, 72, lived in Ruidoso for most of his life and said Monday was also the first time he ever had to evacuate. He lives in the northern part of the village and was notified he had to evacuate by mid-afternoon on Monday.
He said he wasn’t planning on leaving right away, but a friend arrived and drove him out of the village. Nash said traffic was slow getting out of town and past Hondo on US 70.
“It was going about nine, 10 miles an hour then it’d stop, then go,” he said.
Nash also ended up at the ENMU-Roswell shelter. He said as far as he knows, his house is safe.
“I’m optimistic but I’m kind of nervous about it too,” Nash said. “I’m 72 years old and I can’t start over.”
He brought a bag of clothes and another bag of important papers. Nash said there were other things we would have liked to bring with him, but it would have been too much for him to carry.
“I thought I was going to lose everything I own, which is nothing really. It doesn’t mean anything to anybody else but it means a lot to me,” Nash said.
He is without a car at this point, but said he has a niece who lives in Las Cruces who will pick him up Wednesday and take him south to live with her family until the fires settle and Nash is able to assess what happened to his property.
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New Mexico Military Institute also opened up its gymnasium to people fleeing Ruidoso and seeking shelter Monday and Tuesday. Dakota Houghtbi said the shelter had about 120 people at the most at one time, but was holding steady at about 100 people consistently at the shelter on Tuesday evening.
Searching for friends and family in the South Fork or Salt fires? Find and leave messages here.
Houghtbi is a resident of Roswell and part of a military family who has been displaced by wildfires in California, tsunami warnings, hurricane warnings and other natural disasters. She said she heard about the evacuations and immediately went to volunteer.
“I have never seen such overwhelming support and love from a community before. I mean, these people will show back up with tons of cases of water and then they’ll ask us ‘well, what do you need?’ And a couple hours later they’re back with boxes of brand new towels, boxes of sheets, boxes of pillows and toiletries. I mean, anything you can ask these people for. And they don’t have very much either but they’re out there supporting each other and that’s what this world needs,” Houghtbi said. “It’s amazing and heartbreaking at the same time.”
As of about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday Houghtbi said there is still room in the New Mexico Military Institute gym and people can bring their pets as well.
“Everybody here has a smile on their face. They’re in good spirits and that’s all you can ask for,” she said.
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Roswell Mayor Tim Jennings visited each of the shelters to check on evacuees and observe the volunteer work by Roswell residents.
“We’re neighbors, we look after each other,” Jennings said. “We’re in it together.”
He pointed to the shared business between the two communities – visitors heading to Ruidoso for the weekend or to a horse race in Ruidoso Downs often stop in Roswell, bringing business to the city.
“It’s weird to see a four-lane highway with only cars two-abreast coming down the road on one side and there ain’t nobody going the other way. It’s really strange,” Jennings said about the one-way traffic leaving Ruidoso.
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Tourism is a major industry in Ruidoso, Ruidoso Downs, Alto and surrounding communities, meaning there are many seasonal workers who live in the area.
A couple wait together in the Eastern New Mexico University gymnasium Tuesday, June 18, 2024 after evacuating the Ruidoso area because of the South Fork and Salt fires. (Leah Romero / Source NM)
Halil and Aliye Batcik, 33 and 29, originally from Turkey, took jobs at the Alto Lakes Golf & Country Club this summer. This was their first time in Ruidoso – they live in the midtown area off of Mechem Drive. The couple were working in Florida but came to work in New Mexico until October.
Halil Batcik explained that this is their first experience evacuating because of such a situation. They evacuated to Walmart in Ruidoso Monday night and then to ENMU-Roswell early Tuesday morning. Batcik said it took them an hour to travel just three miles in Ruidoso.
“It’s just scary,” he said. “And we don’t have any news about Alto Lakes. We will see.”
Manuel Erazo, 36, is also a seasonal employee working in the Ruidoso area through November. He also said this was his first such experience, but had a positive outlook.
Erazo evacuated to the New Mexico Military Institute gym with three of his fellow seasonal employees. He advised people not to be “nervous” because there is nothing to be done now but wait.
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