Gusts, dryness could fan spring US wildfires again

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN and MARGERY A. BECK
Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — More of the dry, windy weather that helped fan spring wildfires from New Mexico to Nebraska is threatening to test the progress firefighters have made. Forecasters are warning that the volatile weather expected in the southwestern U.S. could create the same sort of conditions that sent blazes racing across the landscape last week. In drought-stricken New Mexico, flames jumped a line built to corral the northwestern perimeter of a fire that has charred 97 square miles and burned homes. Some of the nearly 1,000 firefighters battling that fire were trying Thursday to prevent it from reaching another small community.