(Reuters) - Wildfires stoked by low humidity and high temperatures raged in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado on Saturday, threatening nearly 1,900 homes and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of residents from remote communities, fire officials said. The Forest Service said the intensity of the Colorado wildfire, known as the 416 Fire, had slightly diminished by Saturday morning and that firefighters were focused on protecting neighborhoods and infrastructure as they managed to carve containment lines around 10 percent of the blaze. The larger of the two, the so-called Ute Park Fire in Colfax County, New Mexico, was zero percent contained after it doubled in size to more than 16,000 acres on Friday near Cimarron, a town of about 1,100 people northeast of Santa Fe, according to an alert on the New Mexico Fire Information Website. The blaze in New Mexico - called the Ute Park Fire in Colfax County - destroyed about a dozen empty buildings on the Boy Scouts' storied Philmont Ranch and threatened nearly 300 homes, officials say.
Wildfires in the American states of California, Colorado and New Mexico now burn 31,000 acres (13,000 ha) of land, causing thousands to evacuate their homes.