Joe Biden declares disaster in New Mexico wildfire zone

Planes and helicopters dropped slurries of red fire retardant from the sky as ground crews cleared timber and brush to starve the fire along crucial fronts

Smoke rises from wildfires near Las Vegas, New Mexico (Roberto E. Rosales/The Albuquerque Journal/AP)

President Joe Biden has approved a disaster declaration that brings new financial resources to stretches of New Mexico devastated by fire since early April.

It comes as firefighters slowed the advance of the largest wildfire in the US as heavy winds relented.