A wildfire that started 18 miles southwest of Clovis, New Mexico burned into the west side of Portales destroying at least four structures Wednesday afternoon. The “267 Fire” was reported at about 12:15 p.m. south of Highway 267 between Floyd and Portales during during extremely dry, windy conditions — 82 degrees, 5 percent relative humidity, and west to northwest winds of 30 to 40 mph gusting at 45 to 54 mph.
Officials established evacuation shelters at First Baptist Church and the Portales Memorial Building, in Portales.
The fire was contained late in the afternoon. Firefighters estimated the size at approximately 1,000 acres, but our very unofficial calculation using heat detected by a satellite shows it to be over 3,000 acres.
4 homes lost from the fire burning outside Floyd. One firefighter and one civilian were injured. 50+ MPH winds made it really tough conditions. It is CONTAINED. @KOB4 pic.twitter.com/pAQFd6Sr3J
— Megan Abundis (@meganrabundis) April 11, 2019
It was also very windy in Albuquerque, New Mexico Wednesday:
This afternoon’s weather balloon release was definitely interesting with the strong west winds! #nmwx @metskier15 pic.twitter.com/KtuRyKKdPN
— NWS Albuquerque (@NWSAlbuquerque) April 10, 2019
