'God, It's Really Gone': Chavez Regroups Following Ruidoso Fire Devastation

The day started off normally enough. Retired jockey Casey Chavez, a resident of Ruidoso, New Mexico who brought his tack and his life to the area five years ago, made the commute into work Tuesday morning as usual. Having ridden the last mount of his three-decade long career at nearby Ruidoso Downs nearly a year ago to the date (June 23, 2023), Chavez now works with a local physical therapy office.

“I went there like you do any other day and a little before lunch time, we heard about something happening, like whispers of a big fire,” Chavez said.

The area is no stranger to wildfires. Ruidoso was the home of the 2022 McBride Fire which left two people dead as it burned 6,159 acres between April 12 and May 7.

“This one was different. You could tell in the sky; you could see the smoke clouds.”

Chavez and his coworkers took immediate action, wrapping up work early for the day to be safe.

“One of the other physical therapists and I watched it from the office together and the smoke clouds just kept getting bigger and bigger. I thought, 'these are dangerous looking, they're not a quick in and out type of fire.' So I decided to go home and start figuring out what was going on.”

A little more than five miles from Chavez's office, not far from the house he shared with his girlfriend and their 11-year-old son, the South Fork Fire was already raging.

“It only took a couple of hours for it to reach the area where I live and I had no idea it was that close. It snuck up on us. I've never seen something move that fast in my life. It was larger than anything I could imagine.”

The area of Ruidoso had been dry in recent weeks and under an elevated fire risk from the Storm Prediction Center. A portion of the Day 1 Fire Weather Outlook released for June 18 read: “Areas of dry southwesterly flow will linger across portions of central/eastern New Mexico, with afternoon relative humidity reductions to 10-15 percent overlapping winds around 15 mph for a period of Elevated fire weather this afternoon. Localized breezes and Elevated fire weather concerns may extend further southwest into western New Mexico and southern Arizona.”

“It'd been pretty warm and dry. Days would go by and we'd think 'we need some rain'. We've had maybe a day or two of [rain] but not much and it all dried up so fast.”

As the smoke clouds continued to grow, Chavez made the short drive to his home where he met his girlfriend's son.

“I had no idea where it was going or which direction. I told him we need to get our things together. I wasn't sure what was going on but I knew we needed to be prepared for this fire to go in any direction.”

An incredible view of the South Fork Fire in Ruidoso earlier this week courtesy of Casey Chavez 🔥🐎 pic.twitter.com/zXXs94FRVe

— Stefanie Grimm (@SGrimmTDN) June 21, 2024

Chavez's girlfriend, a local postal worker, arrived shortly after and the three worked quickly to pack.

“You can't pack everything. You can't even think about trying to pack everything. You only have so much time. By the time my girlfriend got home, we had maybe an hour. I still didn't know where [the fire] was but I could sense something was coming.”

With duffel bags of personal belongings on his shoulders, Chavez made his way back outside to begin loading the car.

“I put my bags in the backseat, turned around, and thank God I had my phone on my because as I looked up, ashes were falling from the sky. It was so dark. Behind the house, there was a 150-200 ft wall of flames. That's when I thought, God, it's really over. I knew pretty much right then, when I saw that fire and with the wind blowing, that the house was going to be gone.”

Thankfully, Chavez and his family were able to evacuate safely. Their house was a total loss, one of 500 homes and 1,400 structures burned according to a speech given Wednesday night by New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. Sadly, the South Fork Fire is also responsible for one death as it continues to rage at zero percent containment along with the neighboring Salt Fire, also responsible for a death. Adding insult to injury, a large thunderstorm complex developed over the area Wednesday and triggered flash floods along the burn scars.

Ruidoso Downs, where Chavez spent many of his last years riding, also evacuated to safety with horses moving to other tracks in New Mexico and Arizona. Racing at Ruidoso Downs was canceled through Sunday.

Chavez is just thankful that he and his family were able to escape in time.

We're assessing it day by day. I'm feeling completely overwhelmed. We're all on edge. Nothing is the same. We've had such a drastic change in our daily routine. We're OK physically but mentally, you have to take stock. It's going to be hard. I'm trying not to think of it too much and just take it a few days at a time. Now, there's nowhere to call home.”

President Biden issued a disaster declaration for New Mexico Thursday and FEMA has already stepped in to begin recovery efforts even as the fires continue to rage and Lincoln County remains under a state of emergency. The cause of both the South Fork and the Salt Fire is still under investigation.

As weather patterns may bring better fire-fighting conditions in the coming days, a GoFundMe has been set up for Chavez and his family as they, and the village of Ruidoso, begin to recover.