Southwest Area Incident Management Team takes command of wildfires in Lincoln National Forest

On Wednesday morning, Southwest Area Incident Management Team 5 took over command of the ongoing wildfires near Ruidoso and surrounding communities. The team operates out of a large building at the Alamogordo Fairgrounds and is comprised of personnel from a variety of federal, state and local agencies who specialize in managing large-scale disasters.

Lynn McAloon, spokesperson for the emergency management team, said her crew is keeping an eye on approaching thunderstorms in the area and is doing their best to keep affected communities updated as they report to the command post.

“Thunder and lightning can cause safety concerns for the crew. We’re also concerned about gusty winds and wind direction changes, so we’re very careful to make sure people on the ground know what’s happening when these types of incidents occur,” McAloon said. “We have fire behavior analysts and meteorologists who are watching what’s going on all the time and trying to get that information to people on the ground in a timely manner.”

After a briefing by the team, U.S. Representative Gabe Vasquez said he was confident in the team’s ability to lead an effective response to the ongoing fires.

“The most important thing right now is that we get the proper fire lines in place to protect as much of Ruidoso as possible and make sure that we’re working with our sovereign partners and the Village of Mescalero to make sure that they have the resources they need to protect property and lives in some of these very rural and remote areas. And we’re working with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, local elected officials and the governor’s team who have been providing great assistance here in New Mexico,” Vasquez said. “I can tell you that we’ve mobilized as many resources as we can, both federal, local and state, and right now everyone is doing their job to contain this fire.”

Officials say both the South Fork Fire and the Salt Fire are 0% contained, but on-site firefighters are using all available resources to build firebreaks to bring the fires under control.