Firefighters gain on 2 wildfires burning in New Mexico

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Some residents were allowed back to their homes Tuesday as crews corralled a wildfire that has scorched more than 21 square miles in the central New Mexico mountains.

The fire, which was 60 percent contained, has burned 13,680 acres and 59 homes since it began April 15. Strong winds prompted Torrance County officials to call for evacuations last week.

But crews using hand tools and bulldozers - aided by mild weather - made headway Tuesday and residents in areas west of the small community of Torreon in the Manzano Mountains were permitted to return to their homes.

Wind gusts of up to 35 mph were expected, but did not quite reach that level, said fire information officer Linda Kearns. The lower wind helped crews extinguish some of the heat sources in the interior of the blaze.

The fire has been burning tinder-dry oak brush and pinon, juniper and mixed conifer trees on the east side of the Manzanos, where terrain varies from relatively flat lower areas to rugged higher country.

The fire has cost nearly $8.7 million to fight so far.

Representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Small Business Administration and state and local officials surveyed the damage Tuesday.

Wind is expected to be between 15 and 25 mph Wednesday.

In south-central New Mexico, crews were widening containment lines around a 3,860-acre - or 6-square-mile - blaze in the Sacramento Mountains on Mescalero Apache land, said Tom Berglund, a Forest Service public information officer.

The wildfire began Thursday southeast of Mescalero. It was burning ponderosa pine trees on fairly flat terrain, allowing firefighters to use bulldozers to cut lines around the blaze.

It was 70 percent contained Tuesday, Berglund said.