A giant wildfire is threatening Ruidoso, and the entire village and surrounding area is under a mandatory evacuation.

Prayers for those folks and any of our folks that might be visiting there right now.

A scary time lapse showing how fast things changed in Alto, NM this afternoon. This time lapse is only 6 hours long and also shows the Salt Fire that started this afternoon #NMFire #NMwx https://t.co/gsWhmMLxrT

— Grant Tosterud (@granttosterudwx) June 18, 2024

White Mountain Sports view.
We were Evacuated🙏😭🙏😭🙏😭🙏 pic.twitter.com/ADAsugHZ9u

— Pamela L. Bonner (@PamelaLBonner1) June 18, 2024

We were planning on being there next week. This beautiful area has had too much of this lately.

Bucketrunner said:

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We were planning on being there next week. This beautiful area has had too much of this lately.

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No kidding. The fire in Pendaries a couple of years ago cost some of my parents' friends their RVs/summer homes.

Not looking good. My dad's side of family has had a cabin in Upper Canyon since he was a kid.

Read that Farley's burned down. The food wasn't all that great, but it was a must for drinks and fun. I'll be really down if the Texas Club is gone.

Bucketrunner said:

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Read that Farley's burned down. The food wasn't all that great, but it was a must for drinks and fun. I'll be really down if the Texas Club is gone.

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My great aunts house is right behind Farley's parking lot so that isn't good news. She made it safely to a friends place in Capitan Monday night.

I don't know the area well, only been once. How's that "main road " doing in the middle of town, with all the neat little shops?

Aust Ag said:

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I don't know the area well, only been once. How's that "main road " doing in the middle of town, with all the neat little shops?

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Looks to be OK. City webcam is still up. This appears to be from Noisy Water Winery looking back west towards Eagle Dr.

Ruidoso webcam

So far so good, I think. The worst of it is in the northern part in and towards Alto. The Swiss Chalet, where we spent one of our first anniversaries, is gone, as are several other places up that way.

They are supposed to be getting some rain in the next day or so, but with that will come thunderstorms which might bring lightning.

Man, it looks like a ghost town. I saw two pickups go by just now pulling trailers with what looked like building materials.

This saddens me greatly. In the 80s my grandparents' had a little red cabin in the Upper Canyon, after the 2nd bridge crossing if you're going west on Main towards the edge of town. On the S/S of Main @ Fox Drive. It looks like if the GIS is accurate, the cabin might still be there, but most of the Upper Canyon west of the 2nd bridge has been consumed. They sold the cabin in their later years. I had always dreamed of buying it back somewhere down the road.

My favorite little spot in all NM was the South Fork CG up from Bonito Lake. It burned up along with the entire South Fork trail in the Little Bear Fire in 2011.

I grew up in Levelland just 3.5 hours from Ruidoso so that was our spot. I'm running out of places to go back to.

We have a cabin built in the 1950's in the Upper Canyon....still not sure if it's standing or not

Current webcam shows what appear to be military-style vehicles rolling down the main street.

Also reports are of 1 person dead and 1400 structures destroyed.

Just talked with cousin who has a home in the Alto Country Club. She says it's still there and that she didn't think Farley's burned. Hope she's right.

Bucketrunner said:

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Just talked with cousin who has a home in the Alto Country Club. She says it's still there and that she didn't think Farley's burned. Hope she's right.

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I haven't seen any official list of what's burned, but I heard about Farley's from multiple folks, so who knows...

Just got update from my dad. Our aunt who lives right behind Farleys was allowed to house yesterday and Farley was still standing from what they say. Unfortunately Upper Canyon especially far end neared dead end into reservation looks wiped out. This map released on FB by local Bad Hoss Map Company shows structures burned w red dots

Feel so bad for those folks.

We grew up going to Red River for vacation, not Ruidoso. We were in Hale County, so some of us rednecks went north to RR, the others went to Ruidoso. Further south you went, the more it split to Ruidoso.

I have cousins from Wilson who own a really nice rental property, I think it's in the Alto area. Haven't heard from them yet.

If it's in Alto, I wouldn't hold out much hope. That seems to be the hardest hit. Saw video this morning of the Alto Ski Shop and Bar engulfed in flames. And as of this morning, 0% contained. The fire keeps, "checkerboarding" according to a friend of ours with a condo up there.

I assume its still a long way from Fort Stanton and Lincoln?

CanyonAg77 said:

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I assume its still a long way from Fort Stanton and Lincoln?

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Per the latest Inciweb map, it's still apx 8 miles from Ft. Stanton and 15 miles from Lincoln. If it goes that far it would possibly be the worst in state history. But with 0% contain, who the hell knows at this point.

Raining in Ruidoso right now. The main fire is still not contained, but they're saying that it's slowed down because of the rain and cooler weather.