New Mexico residents prepare to flee as wildfire closes in

Chris Castillo throws a freshly-cut log as he and his cousins clear a wireline along a family member’s home in Las Vegas, New Mexico, on Monday May 2 2022 (Cedar Attanasio/AP)

A wildfire is closing in on a town of 13,000 people – where some hurried to pack their cars with belongings, others hustled to clear bush from around their homes, and police were called in to evacuate the state’s psychiatric hospital.

Wind-whipped flames raced across more of New Mexico’s pine-covered mountainsides on Monday after firefighters battled on several fronts to keep the fire, the largest burning in the US, from pushing into more populated areas as it feeds on the drought-parched landscape.