SANTA FE, N.M. - Thousands of southern New Mexico residents fled a mountainous village as a wind-whipped wildfire tore through homes and other buildings, and killed at least one person. Officials warned the danger isn’t over.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham declared a state of emergency that covers Ruidoso and neighboring tribal lands and deployed National Guard troops to the area. A top-level fire management team is expected to take over Wednesday, and winds will continue to challenge crews, officials said.

The governor’s office confirmed the fatality but said it had no other details.

Christy Hood, a real estate agent in Ruidoso, said the evacuation order Monday came so quickly that she and her husband Richard, only had time to grab their two children and two dogs.

“As we were leaving, there were flames in front of me and to the side of me,” she said. “And all the animals were just running - charging - trying to get out.”

The family headed out of Ruidoso, but heavy traffic turned what should have been a 15-minute drive to leave town into a harrowing two-hour ordeal.

“It looked like the sky was on fire. It was bright orange,” she said. “Honestly, it looked like the apocalypse. It was terrifying and sparks were falling on us.”

More than 500 structures have been destroyed or damaged, but it’s unclear how many were homes. A flyover to provide more accurate mapping and a better assessment of damage was planned Tuesday night, Lujan Grisham said.

“It will really allow us to see inside the fire in a way that we cannot do now because it is too dangerous to be in the heart of the fire,” she said.

The emergency declaration frees up funding and resources to manage the crisis in Lincoln County and the Mescalero Apache Reservation. Lujan Grisham said two fires have together consumed more than 31 square miles.

Other than the one fatality, no one has been seriously injured, she said.

Nationwide, wildfires have scorched more than 3,280 square miles this year - a figure higher than the 10-year averages, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. About 20 wildfires currently burning are considered large and uncontained, including blazes in California and Washington state.

On Tuesday, two wildfires menaced Ruidoso, a high-altitude vacation getaway nestled within the Lincoln National Forest with a casino, golf course and ski resort operated by the Mescalero Apache Tribe nearby. What caused the blazes hasn’t been determined, but the Southwest Coordination Center listed them as human-caused.

New Mexico has grappled in recent years with a devastating series of wildfires, including a 2022 blaze caused by a pair of prescribed fires set by the U.S. Forest Service that merged during drought conditions to become the largest wildfire in the state’s recorded history. That year, a separate fire consumed 200 homes in Ruidoso and resulted in two deaths.

This week, Ruidoso officials didn’t mince words as smoke darkened the evening sky Monday and 100-foot flames climbed a ridgeline: “GO NOW: Do not attempt to gather belongings or protect your home. Evacuate immediately.”