Western New Mexico wildfire now largest in state history

The Whitewater-Baldy Complex fire in western New Mexico has grown to over 170,272 acres, making it the largest wildfire in that state's history, according to the US Forest Service.   The fire is growing in multiple directions, including towards Arizona to the west.

[Right, this image of smoke and fire from the Whitewater-Baldy Complex Fire was taken on May 28, 2012 at 20:55 UTC (4:55 p.m. EDT) from the MODIS instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite. The heat from the fires is outlined in red in the image, and the smoke from the fires appear light brown in color.  The AZ-NM border is shown by a thin black line near the left edge of the image.  Image credit: NASA Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team. Text credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Rob Gutro ]

The fire began on May 9 from lightning strikes. For updates on the fire, visit the Inciweb website: http://www.inciweb.org/incident/2870/.