Chief: Burning vehicle caused fire off U.S. 70, burning 2,000 acres

The Doña Ana County fire chief told ABC-7 a burning vehicle ignited some dry brush off U.S. 70, which ultimately spread to burn close to two thousand acres east of Las Cruces.

“You can see what one small fire turned into,” said Chief Nick Hempel.

The fire started around 9 p.m., Hempel said. A small stretch of the highway was closed for close to ten hours.

“One of our major concerns was the fire jumping the highway and with the winds that we had,” Hempel said. “They were coming off of the mountains here.”

The Doña Ana County Fire Department had assistance from the Bureau of Land Management, the NASA Fire Department and White Sands Missile Range. Hempel said of the sixty people fighting the fire, forty-five were volunteer firefighters, for which he is very grateful.

“They were out here all night long, knowing that come 8 o’clock this morning, they had to go to work,” Hempel said.

Stay tuned to ABC-7 for continued updates on the fire, on-air and online.