‘It’s just gone in moments’: Evacuees speak about the destruction of Ruidoso fires
RUIDOSO, N.M. (KRQE) – It’s been five days since the South Fork Fire and Salt Fire began and evacuees are wondering what comes next. Thousands fled to Roswell where centers are still asking for the community’s support.
Dozens of volunteer staff continue to sort through clothes and toiletries people have sent in. Some evacuees say the community’s support has given them strength when they’ve lost so much. “It was hard to think about, everything that we had just built up because we had been there for about a year. Everything that we built up that we got, it’s just gone in moments,” said Robert Varela, Ruidoso resident.
Like so many other evacuees, Robert Varela said he and his family had to leave almost all of their personal belongings behind when the fires broke out. Now they are staying at the shelter at the New Mexico Military Institute.
Bertha Silva has lived in Ruidoso for more than 40 years. She said this time around, she doesn’t know if her home will make it. “The whole community or at least 80% of the community had to evacuate and we had never had that done since I lived here all my life in Ruidoso,” Bertha Silva, Ruidoso resident.
Senators Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján also visited the Military Institute earlier on Friday to help distribute donations.
Meanwhile, at Eastern New Mexico University Roswell, the shelter said they’ve had a drop in evacuees staying since Monday. They say many of the evacuees they saw were tourists who got stuck in the fires and have since left town.
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