FBI joins investigation into cause of Ruidoso fires

RUIDOSO, N.M. — The FBI confirmed Friday they are now assisting state, federal and tribal investigators to figure out how the Ruidoso fires started.

The FBI is asking anyone with information that can help with their investigation to call 1-800-CALL-FBI (225-5324).

The South Fork Fire was first reported at 9 a.m. Monday on the Mescalero Apache Reservation, west of Ruidoso, and grew to 20 acres within four hours.

At 2 p.m. Monday, the Salt Fire was first reported on the reservation in Otero County, southwest of Ruidoso. The fire grew to 35 acres in the first hour.

Then, both fires exploded in growth.

At around 7:30 p.m. Monday, the South Fork Fire grew to 2,250 acres and the Salt Fire grew to 1,751 acres. By morning, the South Fork Fire was at 13,921 acres and the Salt Fire was at 4,876 acres.

Fire crews say rain is making a dent on the fires, but it’s also getting in the way of firefighting efforts. Local officials are concerned about potential flooding right now.

Ruidoso Mayor Lynn Crawford says the village is bracing for flooding this weekend, and that’s the main reason why evacuees are still not allowed back home.

“The last thing we want to do is bring in everybody and then create another rescue mission, when we’ve already taxed all the resources possible through the state and now we’re reaching out to other surrounding states,” Crawford said. “Because, unfortunately, we’re not the only catastrophe going on in the state at this time.”

The South Fork and Salt fires are sitting at 24,000 acres, combined. There is still no official cause. With the FBI joining the investigation, it indicates that the theory the fires are human-caused is still on the table.

“I don’t know what services they’re going to be offering, I haven’t been briefed on what their capacity is,” Crawford told KOB 4. “So we’ll be bringing those into the unified command and then that’ll be operated out of the EOC.”

The EOC is the emergency operations center – the base camp for Ruidoso Village leaders and fire crews.

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