Photo by Craig FritzTribune

Tribune

Veronica Lopez (left) offers comfort to her aunt Ursula Torres as they watch the Manzano Mountains wildfire burn from a checkpoint near Manzano. Torres' home burned this morning, and Lopez lost her home in March during a house fire.

Photo by Craig FritzTribune

Tribune

Candy Archuleta holds onto one of his horses he moved out of the potential path of the Manzano Mountains wildfire.

Photo by Charlotte Hill CobbTribune

Tribune

Location of the Manzano Mountains wildfire.

More Local

• ABQTrib.com to remain available
• Former Marine to serve two years in jail for killing Albuquerque robber
• Wilson-Pearce battle for U.S. Senate exemplifies party's disparity

MOST RECENT TRIB STORIES

• ABQTrib.com to remain available
  08:48 a.m., February 25, 2008
• Congressman is indicted
  08:37 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Series of attacks target Green Zone
  08:36 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Iran is defying U.N., agency says
  08:35 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Waterboarding approval probed
  08:34 a.m., February 23, 2008

TRIB IN THE BLOGOSPHERE*

• Ty Murray Invitational thrills fans in Albuquerque
• Is Rome Burning?
• Ominous Skies
• The Road to Invalidation
• Albuquerque company participates in “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”

*Note: The Tribune does not create and is not responsible for the blogosphere's headlines and stories. These links to blogs talking about ABQTrib.com are automatically generated. Use them at your own risk.

STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

SHARE THIS STORY [?]

MANZANO — Firefighters and equipment poured into the southern Manzano Mountains all day in an attempt to rein in a raging wildfire that exploded to life overnight and had grown to 7,000 acres.

But the help came too late for Ursula and Gilbert Torres, whose retirement home and upholstery shop on Game Road 199 was claimed early this morning by the fire that roared out of the hills and canyons above them.

Ursula Torres said she and her husband were awakened by a police officer around 1:30 a.m.

"He said, 'You got to get out. The fire is right behind your house. It's 200 yards away.' "

Torres said she and her husband fled in their vehicles, taking nothing.

After the sun came up, they went back, fearing the worst and finding it.

"There's nothing left. The shop and everything, it's gone," she said. "We got nothing. We barely got ourselves out."

Emotions ran high in the rural area along N.M. 55 where houses dot the countryside. Many thought the U.S. Forest Service could have done more to prevent the blaze from expanding.

The fire was reported early Monday morning near Manzano Peak, about 40 miles southeast of Albuquerque, said Forest Service spokesman Doug Williams.

The blaze consumed dozens of acres in the mountainous area Monday, but by Tuesday afternoon had grown to about 250 acres, Williams said. By then, about 40 volunteer and paid firefighters were on the scene, he said.

Their efforts were hobbled by the remote location and extremely dry vegetation, Williams said, as well as the inability to get air support.

When winds whipped up Tuesday night, the fire took off. Aerial surveys this morning put the size at 7,000 acres and growing, the Forest Service said.

Additional aid has been ordered, Williams said. A helicopter is expected today, and air tankers were coming in from California.

An entire management team, plus another 40 firefighters and three engines are expected to arrive today also, Williams said, but because of the unpredictable nature of the fire the firefighters will likely be used to protect homes rather than attack the blaze by hand.

There are no fire lines around any of the fire, which is burning in rugged terrain at an elevation of 7,000 to 9,000 feet, Forest Service spokeswoman Arlene Perea said this morning.

The cause has not been determined, but Perea noted there has been no lightning in the area for a month.

People were asked to leave their homes along Game Road, Forest Road 131, Kayser Mill Road, La Cienega Road, Manzano State Park and the communities of Punta de Agua and Manzano, Perea said.

An emergency evacuation center was established at Mountainair High School.

But on the roadsides and yards around Manzano, most residents had little good to say about the effort.

As they watched the smoke billow across a ridge a few miles south of the turnoff to Red Canyon Campground, residents said they were frustrated the Forest Service hadn't acted more quickly.

"They said it was just 30 acres, and then overnight it's a thousand acres," said Adam Baca, the Torres' son-in-law.

Al Adams, a firefighter with the Torreon-Tajique Volunteer Fire Department, said his crews had volunteered to hike into the fire when it was discovered Monday morning. But he said the Forest Service told them it was under control.

"I don't know what happened," he said as he surveyed the smoldering ridge.

Torrance County Sheriff Clarence Gibson said fierce winds overnight had turned the fire into a "monster," but he echoed residents' complaints that the fire hadn't been dealt with earlier.

"I'm not a firefighter, but people out here, when we see something, we want it knocked down," he said. "I'm sure the Forest Service has their reasons, but people aren't happy."

Charmen Padilla, who evacuated her house near the turnoff to Manzano State Park early this morning, said she was growing worried as the fire continued to spread.

"The sheriffs came at 2:30 (a.m.) and just told us to go. We said, `We are.' All we took were our papers and a change of clothes," Padilla said.

If the fire kept moving toward their house, Padilla said she and her family would likely return and try to set up a fire line around it.

"It's very frustrating," she said. "It seems like they could have caught this when it was just burning on the mountain in the rocks instead of waiting until it was down into our houses."

As the morning wore on, a few dozen residents began to gather along N.M. 55. Most had heard about the Torres' misfortune and came to offer what they could, beginning with hugs. And they wondered after the fates of other neighbors.

Ursula Torres said she'd seen at least one of her neighbors' houses burned and believe another had been lost as well.

Even as they rested in the village of Manzano, she had a sense of humor, however.

"If you want to have Thanksgiving, we got dinner that's already cooked," Ursula joked.

She said a neighbor had offered them an RV to live in, "title and all," but the couple said they hadn't really started to think about where they would go.

"We don't know, mi'jo," Gilbert said. "We might leave this country. We don't want to go back to that damn inferno over there. Everything is black."

Firefighters could be helped in the next few days as cooler weather and a chance of precipitation are forecast, fire information officer Ricardo Zuniga said today.

Officials don't have any containment on the fire or have a guess on when the fire could be contained, Zuniga said.

But residents of the area have been warned that additional evacuations might be ordered, Perea said.

"Anybody along the east section of the mountains, be prepared just in case," she said. "Have important papers ready to go, pets, pictures, anything of any value to them, sentimental or otherwise. Be prepared."

Reporters Kate Nash, Joel Gay and the Associated Press contributed to this report.