McKenna Thompson, 30, wasn’t too concerned when she learned last week that she was among thousands of people in Arizona, Nebraska and New Mexico who would be forced to leave as the wildfires approached.
She had driven home to Flagstaff, Arizona, when she heard of the evacuation order. As smoke swirled around her car and the sky darkened, she soon felt like she was “looking at hell,” she said Sunday. She picked up her 2-year-old son and her mother and drove to a cafe to wait by the fire.
A few hours later, she learned that her house had burned down.
Ms. Thompson was involved in the tunnel fire, which is estimated to have damaged or destroyed 30 homes. Displaced families have been left with rubble, ashes and a poignant reminder of what they have lost.
“Everything’s gone,” Mrs. Thompson said.
The tunnel fire was one of several wildfires over the past week that collectively scorched more than 150,000 acres and forced the evacuation of at least 4,000 homes, officials said. The fires, which are responsible for at least one death, are part of an early and active season across the country as wildfires also include California, Colorado and Texas†
Corey Mead, a National Weather Service forecaster, said Nebraska had seen “above normal” activity during the current fire season. New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham said the fires had hit the state well before the start of the wildfire season. “It’s going to be a tough summer,” she says.
Wildfires are increasing in size and intensity in the United States, and wildfire seasons are getting longer. Research has suggested that heat and drought related to global warming are the main reasons for the increase in larger and more powerful fires.
In New Mexico, Ms. Lujan Grisham said at a news conference on Saturday that of the fires burning in her state, the biggest threat was the Calf Canyon fire, east of Santa Fe, which endangered more than 900 homes.
The Calf Canyon fire has been combined with the Hermits Peak fire, located about 12 miles northwest of Las Vegas, NM, at the base of Hermits Peak in the Pecos Wilderness. The Hermits Peak fire started on April 6 after “unexpected erratic winds” from a prescribed fire in the area increased the blaze, officials reported.
Ms Lujan Grisham said more than 200 buildings had burned down and 1,000 firefighters had been sent. By Sunday, the Calf Canyon fire had burned more than 54,000 acres and was contained 12 percent.
Two other fires in the state, the Cooks Peak Fire and the Mitchell Fire, have set fire to 52,000 acres and 25,000 acres, the state fire department said.
More than 3,400 homes in New Mexico had to be evacuated and more than 3,000 homes were voluntarily evacuated because of the wildfires.
Julie Anne Overton, a spokeswoman for the Santa Fe National Forest, said a storm Sunday evening could provide relief in parts of New Mexico, but dry and warm again later this week. She added that it was rare to see fire conditions in April.
“I think we’re seeing climate change in action,” she said on Sunday.
Coconino County in Northern Arizona was under a state of emergency as firefighters struggled to contain the tunnel fire, which is located about 14 miles northeast of Flagstaff. More than 750 households in the area had to be evacuated, according to the governor’s office.
The Coconino County fire, which began on April 17, was only 3 percent under control on Sunday and had already burned more than 21,000 acres.
One of the victims of the tunnel fire is Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, which “burnt down in its entirety,” the park said on Facebook.
Spanning 3,040 acres and surrounded by Coconino National Forest, the monument is centered around a cinder cone that is the youngest volcano in the largest volcanic field in the contiguous United States.
In Nebraska, one person was killed and three firefighters injured when wildfires that started Friday, fanned by high winds and dry grass, burned in the western and central regions of the state, authorities said.
A spokeswoman for the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency said Sunday there were reports of additional injuries from other fires, but she didn’t immediately provide specifics.
The state’s National Guard deployed trucks and at least three helicopters to assist, and the state’s Wildland Incident Response and Assistance Team sent specialists to several fires, the emergency agency said Saturday.
Steve Jansen and Alyssa Lukpat reporting contributed.