Cimarron, N.M. • A wildfire raced across a swath of tinder-dry forest in northeastern New Mexico on Friday and Saturday, sending up a thick plume of smoke that forced residents to flee their homes as heat and wind threatened to drive the flames.
The blaze destroyed about a dozen empty buildings on the Boy Scouts’ storied Philmont Ranch and threatened nearly 300 homes, officials say. The flames were first reported Thursday and ballooned quickly in a part of New Mexico hardest hit by a severe drought gripping the American Southwest.
More than 60 percent of the U.