Federal officials are warning that expanding drought conditions coupled with hot and dry weather, extreme wind and unstable atmospheric conditions have led to explosive fire behavior in the southwestern U.S., where large fires continued their march across New Mexico on Friday.
Crews also battled blazes in Texas, Colorado and California, where forecasters issued red flag warnings due to elevated fire danger across the region.
Firefighters at the biggest fire in the U.S. worked northeast of Santa Fe, New Mexico, on Friday to reinforce fire lines threatened by winds that gusted in excess of 40 mph (64 kph) and forced the grounding of airtankers and helicopters by midday.
U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore cited the extreme conditions Friday in announcing a pause on prescribed fire operations on all national forest lands while his agency conducts a 90-day review of protocols, decision-making tools and practices ahead of planned operations this fall.
