LA CUEVA, N.M. — New Mexico’s largest forest fire ever broke out early in the afternoon June 26 near Los Alamos. Southern Baptist volunteers mobilized to help the Red Cross and Albuquerque Emergency Management Office.
Eric Larson, pastor of Jemez Mountain Baptist Church, La Cueva, promptly began feeding the firefighters June 26 from the base they had set up at the church. New Mexico Baptists’ disaster response coordinator Ira Shelton authorized New Mexico Baptists’ Disaster Relief (NMBDR) to come alongside and help that evening.
Leading the ministry in Jemez Pueblo were two pastors, Leo Pennington of Midway Baptist Church near Dexter and Joe O’Neal of Mountain Vista Baptist Church, Farmington. NMBDR disaster response command office was opened at the Baptist building in Albuquerque in order to stay on top of the growing list of needs, which multiplied throughout the week, with fires breaking out in other locations across the state, including near Cloudcroft.
Los Alamos residents returned to their homes July 3, seven days after they were forced to leave except for the five dozen families whose homes were destroyed by the fire. New Mexico’s Baptist disaster response office has already offered to help them once the fires in their respective regions are extinguished.
“The clean-up [from] these fires in New Mexico could be staggering and a difficult strain on lower-income areas,” explained Paul Cunningham, pastor of First Baptist Church, Los Alamos.
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