Gale force winds and drought spawned raging wildfires across five states of the parched Southwest, damaging dozens of homes and businesses and forcing a Kansas town to evacuate.
Wildfires were reported in Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Kansas on Sunday. In some cases, firefighters were struggling to bring them under control Monday amid high and shifting winds.
In New Mexico, a wind-driven grass fire destroyed five houses and several barns, forced evacuations and knocked out power to about 1,000 homes and businesses in Ruidoso Downs.
It has tripled in size, but fire crews hoped improved weather conditions would help them Monday, officials said.
In Colorado, crews battling a wildfire west of Fort Collins could get some help from air tankers if weather continues to be on their side.
The fire has destroyed about 15 houses in a rugged, hilly area around 15 miles west of Fort Collins. Residents of more than 300 homes were evacuated but have now been allowed back. They've been warned to be ready to leave again.
Crews plan to continue building containment lines around the 4,500-acre fire on Monday, a day after cold and snowy weather slowed the fire's spread.
Firefighters also battled two blazes in southeastern Colorado over the weekend.
In New Mexico, more than 100 people at Ruidoso Downs Racetrack and Casino were ordered evacuated Sunday, as were several neighborhoods. That area is about 200 miles south of Albuquerque.
New Mexico Forestry Division spokesman Dan Ware confirmed that the buildings were damaged by the blaze, which has not been contained. The fire has scorched more than 6,500 acres, or over 9 square miles, on private, state and federal land in southern New Mexico, he said.
The fire continued to threaten buildings, but progress made Monday allowed evacuees to return.
He said he did not know the locations of the burned homes but several barns were destroyed that were east of the Ruidoso Downs Racetrack and Casino, which is home to the All-American Futurity. The race is one of the richest in quarter horse racing: last year's winner earned $1 million.
"As far as I know, there wasn't any damage to the track," Ware told The Associated Press. "Some barns in the area might have been damaged."
About 125 to 150 customers and staff evacuated from the casino portion, Ruidoso Downs security official Charlie Falke said. The racetrack was closed at the time.
"We didn't see any flames. We just saw smoke," he said, adding that neither the track nor the casino was damaged.
The blaze was near the Alto power substation, which serves about 1,000 homes and businesses, said Clint Gardner, a member services manager for Otero County Electric. The extent of damage to the power lines was not immediately known, he said.
The blaze began Sunday afternoon in Gavilan Canyon in Ruidoso. The cause is under investigation.
In the central part of the state, firefighters made progress on another wind-driven wildfire that prompted the evacuation of 50 people from the New Mexico Boys Ranch for underprivileged children, Ware said. That fire grew to about 2,000 acres and was believed to be human caused, he said.
Conditions in the area, which is more than 60 miles south of Albuquerque, were "blowing, smoky, dusty, very, very dry," said Vicky Fox, a fire information officer. No structures have burned, Fox said.
A third fire that had blackened about 2,000 acres in the Uvas Valley along N.M. 26 was nearing containment, Ware said.
In Texas, high winds and extreme drought fed fires that scorched more than 7,000 acres on Sunday.
Fire officials evacuated 300 homes, a power plant and a sewage and water treatment facility as a 1,500-acre grass fire crossed a highway and burned outside of Odessa, 360 miles west of Austin.
The Texas Forest Service was using a helicopter and bulldozers to support seven other agencies battling the blaze, spokeswoman Jeanne Eastham said.
Crews had stopped the fire outside a water treatment plant just southeast of the city, she said.
"It has not crossed that road, and they're holding it there, at this point," Eastham said.
More than three quarters of the Texas was under severe or extreme levels of drought on Sunday. Wind gusts of up to 43 miles per hour fanned the flames outside Odessa in the afternoon, but conditions improved in the evening, National Weather Service Meteorologist Douglas Cain said.
In Oklahoma, more than 100 fires burned across the state, damaging homes near the panhandle town of Guymon and causing numerous highway wrecks, said Michaelann Ooten of the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.
In southwestern Kansas, the 1,100 residents of Satanta, including the hospital and long-term care facility, were asked to evacuate after an out-of-control fire burned about 1,000 acres and threatened 250 homes in the community, the local emergency management office said.