Fire, New Mexico | featured news

Two cousins who admitted to accidentally starting the largest wildfire in Arizona history by leaving a still-smoldering campfire unattended were each sentenced to 48 hours in jail on Wednesday and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service. Caleb Malboeuf, 27, and David Malboeuf, 25, were also placed on five years' probation by U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Aspey in Flagstaff, Arizona, for the raging wildfire that torched 840 square miles in eastern Arizona and New Mexico last summer, according to assistant U.S. attorney Patrick Schneider.

One person was dead as massive wildfires in drought-parched Colorado and New Mexico burned out of control, while Western lawmakers pleaded for updates to an aging U.S. aerial firefighting fleet needed to combat a fire season that lasts year-round.

Firefighters on Sunday were fighting wildfires that have spread quickly in parched forests in Colorado and New Mexico, forcing hundreds of people from their homes and the evacuation of wolves from a sanctuary.

Experts say a massive wildfire that has become the largest blaze in New Mexico history may just be a preview of what's to come after months of drought.